Everything seemed to be going smoothly with my seduction of Lord Trembath - until we hit a serious problem after supper!

 

I drove His Lordship back from Yeovil on the A303. We touched 135 mph on some of the straighter stretches of road, and I was really showing him what my E-Type can do - whilst all the time playing suggestively with the stick-shift. We arrived back at Lyndon Towers in record time, despite being pulled over by a young speed cop - who of course let me off with a stiff warning when he realized who I was. The Chief Constable of Beaufortshire – his ultimate boss – is a regular client at my Mayfair Escort Agency, and so I have immunity from speeding offences (and many other misdemeanours!) in that part of the world!

 

Back at the ancestral pile, Lord Trembath played a few frames of billiards with my husband, while I changed into one of my favourite seduction outfits. I chose a seriously revealing ensemble: a leather micro- mini-skirt - which conspicuously failed to cover the tops of my seamed black stockings - five-inch black and chrome stiletto heels, a black open-tipped bra and white a see-through blouse that puts my boobs totally on display. I could see Lord Trembath becoming visibly hot and bothered as supper wore on, and I thought I was in for an amusing evening - and night! After desert, my hubby (who knows his lines very well) casually remarked that he had been shopping in Winchester for some new silk lingerie – a late wedding anniversary present for me. He hadn’t had a chance to see if his purchases fitted. Would Lord Trembath object if Lady Rebecca put on a little after-dinner fashion show?

 

Well!!! Lord Trembath did something that hasn’t happened at Lyndon Towers since I was first married. He made an excuse - and left! Something about having to be up early next morning for a charity cricket match in High Wycombe. I was scandalized. He’s turning me down, I thought to myself! How can this happen???

 

It got worse. I offered His Lordship a lift to the station in Winchester - hoping that he might only be shy in front of my husband, and would jump my bones when we were alone together in the Aston Martin. Not a bit of it! Instead, when we pulled into the station car park, I received an unctuous lecture about my ‘promiscuous’ lifestyle. “You are such a talented woman, Lady Rebecca” said His Lordship, sententiously. ”You have so much to offer society through creative entrepreneurship and acts of human charity. But I had heard even before I met you that you were dedicated only to a life of sensual and sexual indulgence. I reserved judgement, and gave you the benefit of the doubt. But it seems it is true – you embarrass the ranks of the English aristocracy through your sordid career as a call girl, and the promotion through your Sodality organization of many other unnatural sexual acts which outrage public morals and public decency. Even your driving on the public highway is a danger to the public! I prefer to save my racer’s instincts for Goodwood. I am deeply shocked by your lifestyle, and especially because in other ways you are clearly such a refined and cultivated lady.”

 

I refused to rise to the bait. Instead, I gave Lord Trembath a gentle kiss on the lips, and teasingly stroked his inner thigh before he could wriggle out of the Aston’s bucket seat. “We must talk about this another time” I said sweetly. “Why don’t we do lunch at the Oxford & Cambridge Club together? It’s quite close to where I work. And, if you are going to try and reform my morals, I will need a good meal under my belt before you start. Do have a safe journey! Toodle Pip!”

 

Damn it! Damn it!! Damn it!!! I do hate it (but I love the challenge!!!) when they play all innocent and hard to get!!!

 

Love and Seductive Kisses to All!

xxxxxxx

Lady Rebecca Lyndon

Duchess of Basingstoke

 

Inna lillahi wa inna illayhi raji'oon - To Allah we belong and to Allah we will return

Al-Qur'an, 2:56; إنا لله و إنا إليه راجعون

 

BENAZIR BHUTTO, 21 June 1953 - 27 December 2007

Photographed at her home in Dubai, 4 December 2004,

by Patrick Litchfield/Getty Images

 

~ BB was gravely determined to fulfil her last promise to her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, imprisoned by General Zia ul-Haq's military regime in 1977, and hanged to death on

4 April 1979: "He told me at our last meeting at Rawalpindi Jail that I must sacrifice everything for my country. This is a mission I shall live or die for."

 

In the revised edition of her autobiography, Daughter of the East, An Autobiography, published on 2 April 2007 in London, BB stated her intention to return to Pakistan

once again under great personal risk, a statement that is telling, chilling:

 

'So as I prepare to return to an uncertain future in Pakistan in 2007, I fully understand the stakes not only for myself, and my country, but the entire world. I realise I can be arrested.

I realise that like the assassination of Benigno Aquino in Manila in August 1983, I can be gunned down on the airport tarmac when I land. After all, al-Qaeda has tried to kill me on several times, why would we think they wouldn't try again as I return from exile to fight for the democratic elections they so detest? But I do what I have to do, and am determined to return to fulfil my pledge to the people of Pakistan to stand by them in their democratic aspirations.

 

I take the risk for all the children of Pakistan.

 

It is not about personal power. It is about simple decency and respect for the right of men and women to live in security and dignity and in liberty. And now, in this new age

of danger, extremism and terror, it is about something more. Democracy in Pakistan

is not just important for Pakistanis, it is important for the entire world. In this age of

the exploitation and radical interpretation of my beloved religion, we must always remember that democratic governments do not empower, protect and harbour terrorists.

A democratic Pakistan, free from the yolk of military dictatorship, would cease to be the

petri dish of the pandemic of international terrorism.

 

So I plan my return from exile to lead yet another campaign. I pray that the democratic world will demand that General Musharraf provides the standards of free and fair elections; allow all political personalities and parties to freely contest them; allow international observers to moniter the balloting and counting; and above all, abide by the outcome. I know it sounds idealistic, and to some unrealistic, but after all these years, I still maintain my faith that time, justice and the forces of history are on the side of democracy.

 

Some people might not understand what drives me forward into this uncharted and potentially dangerous crossroads of my life. Too many people have sacrificed too much, too many have died, and too many people see me as their remaining hope

for liberty, for me to stop fighting now. I recall the words of Dr Martin Luther King:

'Our lives begin to end the day we remain silent on things that matter.' With my faith

in God, I put my fate in the hands of my people.'

 

[Part 2: Taking on the Dictator, chapter 17: Prime Minister and Beyond, page 430-431]

 

جپ تک صو ج جاند رہےکا تب تک تیرا نام رہے کا، جیے بھٹو

 

Postscript, 1 January 2008: A writer always worth reading, and the first commentary I

read after hearing of BB's death, is Tariq Ali writing in The Guardian, 28 December 2007: 'The Bhutto family should not be asked for any more sacrifices.' God help and protect her teenage son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is successor of the fight and of his mother's political legacy.

  

Yup, a bunch of bikers rode through Seattle's Pride Queer-nival on Saturday wearing nothing. Nada. Zippo. At least three of them had the decency to paint themselves! (I'm kidding - hee hee.)

Once Upon A Time, back in the late-80's. I worked as a kitchen manager at a newly-opened pseudo-restaurant called Willi's Chili and BarBar. The restaurant had been installed in a newly remodeled, two-story wood-frame house on a busy street just a couple blocks down from the campus of an Unnamed Southwest Missouri University, in a medium-sized city much like the medium-sized city of Springfield, Missouri.

 

In its former, pre-pseudo-restaurant days, the house had been what was known at the time as a "party house," i.e., an oftentimes money-making operation set-up by some enterprising student, where, for a small entrance fee, one might consume a limited amount of keg beer (limited because usually there were too-few kegs for too-many people) and pursue additional opportunities in the worlds of Sex, Drugs, and Rock&Roll.

 

Not a whole lot changed at the house after the remodel and the Grand Opening of Willi's Chili and BarBar. Willi, I discovered after I came to know him, was kind of a party boy himself. At that time I was teaching a couple of courses at the Unnamed Southwest Missouri University as a member of the adjunct (low-paid) faculty, but, because I had a lot of bills to pay (my girlfriend had moved out and left me with a house payment and $4400 worth of equity to cough-up, and I had a new-car payment to boot) I was also cooking full-time at a pseudo-French place (you might say that, back then, all the restaurants in the medium-sized city much like the medium-sized city of Springfield, Missouri were pseudo) called Patrick's, over on the south side of town, where the richer folks lived. Patrick's was okay, I learned a bit, but the pay was low (and some of it was in cash), and Patrick was, well, we won't go into that. Let's just say that he was predictably unpredictable. So I was looking for another, higher-paying, less-stressful cooking job, preferably with a more predictably predictable owner.

 

I heard about Willi's Chili and BarBar while it was still in the gestation stage, and one night, after I had taught my classes, I went over to the see Tina Louise (not her real name), who was a member of the Psychology faculty (she was also one of the more liberal members of the not-terribly liberal local city council) and was also Willi's consort. Her husband had died and his wife had died, or there were divorces in there somewhere. Anyway, they were together, shacked-up in the parlance of the time, and they were doing the restaurant together, though in reality Willi was the driving force. I told Tina Louise of my interest in the new restaurant and she invited me to meet Willi, over at their house, and have a get-acquainted interview.

 

Okay, long story short, I met Willi (he was a florid-faced middle-aged fellow who had also been a city councilman, but who had been recalled by his constituents when he insisted on doing a favor for a developer that his constituents vehemently informed him they didn't want him to do). He had also been a successful businessman, but was now being sued by some outfit in California over some legal matter, a legal matter that he was most vehemently not culpable in the commission thereof, according to Willi), told him about my cooking experience (over the course of two, or maybe more, drinks (now that I think back on it, it was more than two, and I remember being pretty thoroughly sloshed when I left their house that night)) and soon enough found myself hired as one of the two kitchen managers. One guy was the day guy and one guy was the night guy. I think I was the night guy.

 

The restaurant opens and is wildly successful. In the medium-sized city much like the medium-sized city of Springfield, Missouri, all the restaurants may have been pseudo, but some were more pseudo than others. What Willi's Chili and BarBar had going for it was crazy Willi, and the decor that Willi installed. He had been a World War II fighter pilot in the Pacific and had collected numerous Air Force related artifacts, drawings and photographs, and other mementoes, Flying Fortresses cruising and P-51 Mustangs diving and Jap Zeroes (that's what Willi would have called them) engulfed in flames and heading downwards, towards oblivion.

 

So while I kept my cooking job at Patrick's and continued to teach my classes, I began to help out at the now late-term, soon-to-open Willi's, working on recipes, planning prep lists, conducting interviews for the kitchen staff.

 

At last, opening day was at hand. The building inspector arrived, surveyed the premises, gave us the okay for the fifty-one seats that were installed, signed the Certificate of Occupancy, and left. Willi promptly had another forty seats installed, twenty inside and twenty outside on the front patio. Since the kitchen was about the size of two bathrooms on a ConAir commuter jet, any fool could see that things were going to be tight. And I was any fool.

From the git-go, we were super-busy . The number of local avant-garde hipsters in the medium-sized city much like the medium-sized city of Springfield, Missouri was large, and those ninety-one seats only went so far. Almost from opening day, the line stretched out the door, around the side of the building, and into the parking lot in back.

 

Willi designated one of the waitresses, one who looked especially fetching in short-short short shorts and a little handkerchief-kinda-bikini-top-thing, to go out with her order pad and take drink orders. The stout drinks, the short shorts, and the handkerchief-kinda-bikini-top-thing kept everybody happy.

The primary menu offering at Willi's Chili and BarBar was grease. Willi even specified that all the chili served must have a quarter-inch of grease floating on top. Just about everything had cheese in it, and every item on the menu had a name derived from Willi's World War II glory days. I don't remember all the names, but I can tell you that there was no entree called the "Enola Gay," and the vegetarian burrito was called "The Glider." Ribs were a popular seller, and barbequed chicken was a popular seller. Both of them spent some time in our little quartz oven (about the size of a microwave oven), and that quartz oven ran, night and day, at 800 degrees. Since the ceiling in the kitchen, on the cook's line, was seven feet high, and since, just to remind you, that kitchen was about the size of two bathrooms on a ConAir commuter jet, it was hot back there. It was hot as The Hot Place.

 

But in the beginning, when a restaurant is brand-new, when it's more of a Platonic Ideal than a Grubby Reality, it can be a heck-of a lot of fun. There's a Mickey Rooneyesque, Let's Put On A Show magical feel to it all. Everything's new, everyone's putting on their best face, hope reigns supreme. All the waitresses seem available, and alluring (at least until you get to know their stories). One night one of the waitresses came into the kitchen and, in the course of ordinary conversation, said something about something being "capricious." "Ooooh," I said, all mocking and condescending, "big word." "Did you think I was stupid?" she said. I looked at her. I hadn't paid much attention up to that point, perhaps because she was wearing glasses. She didn't look stupid, she looked rather smart, and she was plenty cute enough. Soon, we were out in the hall, chatting each other up. Not long thereafter, we were on a date, a date that segued soon enough . . . Well, I won't describe what it segued into, but it was pleasing, and left me with a lasting affection for the word "capricious." Of course, that word cuts a lot of ways, and not too many days passed before we were at a party, and my Capricious Lass turned to me (we were standing outside the bathroom in a hallway of a little two bedroom house) and said, "I lost my virginity right here." She meant right there in the hallway, on the floor. I should have known that my days were numbered, then and there.

 

In those early days at Willi's ,the pace, and the hours, were phenomenal. I had my two classes at the Unnamed Southwest Missouri University to teach (in the morning) and I also had another class that I was teaching at an Unnamed Southwest Missouri College on the other side of town (that was one night a week), and, my job at Willi's (I had quit at Patrick's, and, miraculously, made it out of there on good terms). That first week, I taught my two classes at the University and immediately rushed over to Willi's, where I worked past mid-night. On the days when I didn't have classes to teach, I worked all day. That first week, I worked 102 hours at Willi's.

 

It wasn't a schedule that I could keep up for long, and soon enough, for one indiscretion on another, and because he didn't want to keep paying me overtime, or at least as much overtime, Willi demoted me, stripped me of my rank as kitchen manager. There was a hefty, horse-faced middle-aged head bartender named Stella (as usual, not her real name) and she had quickly determined that I stood in her way of advancement. She undermined me with Willi at every turn. What astounded me was that when he demoted me, Willi informed me that he was also giving me a raise, of a dollar an hour. I still haven't figured that one out.

 

Stella took control, but I was still an integral part of the operation. I could have contributed more, but since neither Willi or Stella ever asked me, I never spoke up about the gaping leaks in their operation. They thought that hiring fraternity boys as bartenders was a good idea, because the frat boys would attract their house mates as customers. But night after night, after Stella and Willi had gone home (in Willi's case, he went upstairs---he and Tina Louise had fixed up the second floor as a one-room pied-a-terre), the frat boy bartenders entertained their brothers at the bar with free drinks. Everybody who worked there, in fact, got free drinks. The waitstaff got theirs, and, in return for cheese fries or a burger, us guys in the kitchen got ours.

 

Not that it really mattered, because just about everyone in the restaurant, everyone working there anyway, was high most of the time anyway. There was a chest freezer down in the basement, and the locked liquor cabinet was down there, so just about everyone had an excuse to go down, at more or less anytime. What Willi and Stella didn't know was that there was an exhaust vent, over by the furnace, and you could light up a joint, take a hit, and blow out the smoke into the vent, and it went all the way up and escaped through the roof of the house. I would have been the worst offender, gladly, but I had learned, cooking omelets in front of the customers at Patrick's on Sunday morning, that being high and cooking didn't go well together, at least for me, so I limited myself to the odd Screwdriver, when the kitchen was closed and we were cleaning up to go home. Half, two-thirds, maybe everybody else, was either drunk or stoned or both, most if not all of the time. One Sunday afternoon, I remember, two of the waitresses were so drunk that they had to sit down at the tables with their customers to steady themselves so they could write their orders. They came into the kitchen and laughed about it. Another time, I remember one of the waiters bragging that he had worked the previous day while doing five hits of acid.

 

Of course, if Willi had been on top of the situation, he would have picked up on the problems. If he had been more liked and respected, someone would have made him aware of the disfunction. But he started his day at ten in the morning with an eight-ounce juice glass full of vodka, every day. For a long time, I thought it was water, but then I figured it out. He had a rather winsome dog, a big Standard poodle, named Jack (not his real name) and sometimes in the morning, Willi would coax (well, after a while I guess he didn't have to coax too much) Jack up on a bar stool, and Stella or someone would give Jack a saucer full of Kahlua and cream. Finally someone, a disgruntled employee no doubt, called the health department and they put a stop to Jack's libations.

 

So now you have the scene, Willi's Chili and BarBar, a wide-open, Hellbent for Leather, anything goes kind of place, already in decline but not keen to the news. We'd been open maybe ten months, so it would been around February. A new guy started working at Willi's, another frat boy, named Stewart. He was tall and imposing in a I'm-throwing-my-weight-around kind of way, with a tall brow, a face of flat planes, and an arrogant, droning, nasal bray. I would have guessed that his family had some money, but still, he was waiting tables, so perhaps they didn't have that much money. Perhaps it was Stewart's air of superiority coupled with his physical bulk , his complete lack of elegance, grace, intelligence, decency. whatever, but soon enough, Stewart and I had become enemies in the kitchen. One day we squared off and mutual threats of physical anhillation were exchanged. Neither of us had the true tough guy's indifference to consequences (and, I might add, the physical courage) to go first, so we backed off, a mutual stand-down. But I'll say this---Stewart was someone I detested. When he was working and I was working, the whole atmosphere of a job I had formerly liked was now different.

 

It was about this time of year, towards the middle of March, Spring Break Time. On the Friday before the break began, almost the whole campus cleared out. That night, there was a freak, unexpected snowstorm that dumped four or five inches of heavy wet snow over the western half of Missouri.

I guess I was off that weekend. On Monday, after I taught my classes, I came in to work and found the restaurant completely changed. No one was talking, everyone was going about their appointed tasks in the most desultory manner, no looking up, no smiling.

 

"What happened?" I finally asked someone. "Why is everyone so depressed?"

 

"Didn't you hear? Stewart's dead. He ran his car head-on into a snowplow."

 

I won't say that I was saddened, but shocked I certainly was. Soon enough, the details started coming out. Stewart and one of the other waiters had gone back to the waiter's apartment and done some drugs, pot probably, or acid, perhaps. How much,

I don't know. Then Stewart had gotten into his car and started home for Kansas City. He was going to see his family for a day or two and then head down to Fort Walton Beach for the break. He got about half way home, somewhere up in central Missouri, around Sedalia, when he met the snowplow, on a bridge.

 

By Wednesday, the story had changed. Stewart hadn't been with the other waiter, and, as far as the other waiter knew, no drugs had been consumed. It's always funny when people's stories change. Do they think you forget, from one version to the next?

 

The kicker to the story of Stewart is this: He couldn't have been a guy who was much loved by his fellow frat brothers. He was a winning combination of obtuse, overbearing, bullying, and dumb. Even if they were like him, they couldn't have reveled in his companionship. And now, dead, he pored gasoline on the smoldering pyre of their detestation. As his frat brothers, they all were obligated to attend his funeral. It fell in the middle of spring break week, so they all had to buy plane tickets and get to Kansas City for the service. Whether they went back to the beaches after that I never heard.

 

Certainly the Stewart that exists for me is a one-dimensional character. I never saw another side of him, but most probably there were some worthy traits. I would like to think that even Stewart, who burns in my imagination like the purest of elements, contained some trace minerals that would surprise me. I don't want to say that I was glad to see him go, but I will admit I never caught myself missing him.

 

Before I moved up to the medium-sized city much like the medium-sized city of Springfield, Missouri, I had heard two things said about it. The first time was one afternoon in a fiction workshop. Jim Whitehead, loud, large, wonderful Jim Whitehead, subtle as a ten-pound sledge and now gone, was leading the workshop that semester. Someone had submitted a story that had for its setting [a medium-sized city much like the medium-sized city of] Springfield, Missouri. Whitehead leaned back in his chair (or leaned foreward---how would I remember) and said "Ha Ha, He He, Ho Ho (insert your own Jovian interjections), [a medium-sized city much like the medium-sized city of] Springfield, Missouri, it's a typical midwestern American city." Pause for dramatic effect. "Rotten at the core."

 

Then, a few years later, I was getting ready to move to the medium-sized city much like the medium-sized city of Springfield, Missouri. I was in my final days in Fayetteville, getting my bags packed, cleaning out my apartment. On Sunday morning for some unknown reason I went up to the English department. Ben Kimpel, the department chairman, the smartest man I ever knew, (but to get a proper visual you have visualize an elderly Tweedledum, or Tweedledee) was coming out the door of the building that, now that he's gone, bears his name. He looked at me. I guess he knew where I was moving. "Awh, Van Noate," he said, "don't be so down at the mouth. [The medium-sized city much like the medium-sized city of] Springfield, [Missouri] is not the asshole of the universe."

 

I lived there for eighteen years, and I can tell you that, though the medium-sized city much like the medium-sized city of Springfield, Missouri is not really a midwestern city (it actually has more of the Wild West, and more of the Ante-Belllum South in it), in all other respects, both statements are true. It's rotten-at-the core, but it's not the asshole of the universe. You can, most definitely, get a good meal, if you're willing to make it yourself. And for my flickr friends who might be out there in the vicinity, remember, they're always exceptions to the rule. You yourself are one of them.

Not really business casual

 

Dress codes chafe me. It doesn’t matter how liberal or conservative the code is, I’ll find a reason to dislike it. Currently, I have no dress code, so I rant about the uniform we are sometimes required to wear.

 

Even with no dress code and my own disregard for decency, I know this dress is too short for work. Worn with leggings, though, is it really business inappropriate?

 

Dress, Parker (consignment). Leggings, Express. Boots, Vince Camuto. Earrings, Ali’s Boutique. Sunglasses, grinderPUNCH.

 

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breaking joyfully through with ever-loving commitment to freedom and all that is good and right and decent.

 

Winners don’t quit on themselves. Americans put in the work and fight to uphold values of honesty, decency, respect, love and joy. We know freedom isn’t free.

See this photo for a full explanation of the gold BA.

 

One of the Jovian Marines delivers a new trophy weapon to his boss, renegade former Space Police officer Nigel MacGruder. An M1917 Revolver sits on a bed of crimson fabric (which I embroidered) next to a set of chrome bullets represented by an ammo chain link. MacGruder himself is carrying an HSR with a chrome Chainblade.

 

Please do not even think about asking me to trade or sell these.

Derde Kostverlorenkade 26/04/2020 14h24

The phenomenon "plaskrul" ("pee curl") is something we can still experience and photograph. All 39 existing urinals will disappear over the years.

This can be found on the Derde Kostverlorenkade on the corner of the Vosmaerstraat. Peeing with a view of the Kostverlorenvaart.

 

Plaskrul

The pee curl disappears: "Too bad, it belongs in the street scene"

 

The green curl of water, once a symbol of civilization, disappears from the streets. The municipality has an extinction policy. Not everyone agrees. "It is a familiar and quite graceful appearance."

If you want to urinate old Amsterdam again, you shouldn't wait too long. As rancid as it may be, the Amsterdam curl is an attraction: standing puddles - unfortunately only for men - while looking out at the canal and passers-by, through a cast iron grid.

There are gems in between. The one on the Plantage Kerklaan gives a view of Artis, the one on the Herenmarkt overlooks the postcards-Amsterdam of the Brouwersgracht.

At The Grand, on Oudezijds Voorburgwal, there is a curl built of natural stone, a red brick mesh with a statue on the roof, designed in the style of the Amsterdam School at the beginning of the last century. This urinal will survive the major cleaning; it was designated a national monument in 2001.

 

The other curls, still 39, will disappear one by one and will be replaced by modern MVG toilet units: more hygienic and suitable for men, women and disabled people.

The first curls were placed around 1870. De Baar: “From a hygienic point of view. Men used to do it directly in the canal. But the standards of decency changed. A civilized gentleman also found a bit of seclusion pleasant. ”

 

The design of the curl had to provide transparency. That was, according to the city archive of 1880, "for the police, to check that no indecent acts were taking place." Especially from the twenties of the last century, the curls became popular as a meeting place for men.

In recent years, many curls of urine have disappeared due to redesign of the public space or after complaints from local residents about odor nuisance. The municipality has an extinction policy. Also because the curls fall under sanitary sexism.

[ Het Parool, 30/01/2020 ]

Belgian postcard by Victoria Biscuits Chocolats, no. 28. Photo: M.G.M. Lana Turner and Vincent Price in The Three Musketeers (George Sidney, 1948), based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas.

 

The Three Musketeers (George Sidney, 1948) is a classic Swashbuckler, starring Gene Kelly as D’Artagnan and Lana Turner as Milady De Winter. Other stars in the cast include Van Heflin, June Allyson, Gig Young, Angela Lansbury, and Vincent Price. It is one of the many, adaptations of the famous French book ‘Les trois mousquetaires’ by Alexandre Dumas père, and possibly the liveliest one, full of acrobatics, galloping horses, flapping cloaks, and sword fights with almost operatic intensity. Dumas’s story is followed quite faithfully, but the creative fantasy is in the theatrical way of depicting it.

 

As in the book: the story of The Three Musketeers (George Sidney, 1948) is set in 1625 in France. The young and inexperienced D'Artagnan (Gene Kelly) leaves his home village in Gascony to become a musketeer in Paris in the service of His Majesty King Louis XIII (Frank Morgan). In his pocket, he has the letter of recommendation from his father (silent film star Robert Warwick), a former musketeer and friend of the current captain of the musketeers, Treville (Reginald Owen). His father has taught him the art of fencing masterfully and gives him the good advice never to let himself be compromised with impunity. He is only too happy to follow this advice. Very soon, before he has even reached Paris, D'Artagnan gets into a confrontation with Rochefort (Ian Keith), Cardinal Richelieu's (Vincent Price) confidant, and his companion, the mysterious Lady de Winter (Lana Turner). At this first opportunity to preserve his honour in battle, he is unceremoniously struck down and robbed by Rochefort's henchmen, and his credentials are also taken from him. Once in Paris, he not only meets his new friends and comrades-in-arms Athos (Van Heflin), Porthos (Gig Young), and Aramis (Robert Coote), but also his landlord's niece, Constance Bonacieux (June Allyson), and falls in love. Many adventures and entanglements lie ahead and in the path of the brave hero D'Artagnan. Driven by his desire to become the king's musketeer and to prove himself in battle, he falls into the clutches of both the Queen (Angela Lansbury) and the cardinal, experiences numerous dangerous situations and sometimes needs his new friends to get away at all. Nevertheless, he sets out to travel to England for the Queen's honour, to retrieve a jewellery box given away by the Queen's secret lover, Lord Buckingham (John Sutton), and to prevent Richelieu from plotting. To assist him, he is accompanied by Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, as well as his dull but loyal servant Planchet (Keenan Wynn). Shortly after D'Artagnan's return from England, Constance is kidnapped at the behest of Cardinal Richelieu. D'Artagnan makes a pass at Milady de Winter, discovers a delicate secret, and only just manages to save himself. Constance is freed and taken to safety in England, shortly after which war breaks out, and our four friends are drawn into it. They overhear a conspiratorial meeting between the Cardinal and Lady de Winter in an inn. The latter is to travel to England and kill Buckingham. Planchet also travels to England at D'Artagnan's behest to warn Buckingham. Lady de Winter is convicted and is to be executed. Constance is appointed her guardian. Milady de Winter, after a lengthy psychological duel, manages to take out Constance as well as a guard and Buckingham and then escapes. Athos and D'Artagnan, who wanted to help Constance, arrive too late; after Constance dies in D'Artagnan's arms, they themselves also have only escaped. Back in Paris, the four friends track down Lady de Winter, pronounce the death sentence on her, and have the prisoner executed. During their subsequent escape towards Spain, they are overpowered and arrested. Their fate seems to be sealed, but young D'Artagnan still has one trump card: the Countess's passport, personally sealed and signed by Cardinal Richelieu, with the note that everything the bearer of this letter undertakes will serve the good of the state. The king is not allowed to know the background of this letter - so Richelieu has to give in. Aramis receives permission to take up a clerical office. Porthos is allowed to marry richly, Athos gets his property back and D'Artagnan is to negotiate a peace offer with the enemy England on behalf of France.

 

Among the many American film versions of Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers are the 1914 Film Attractions Co. production, directed by Charles V. Henkel, the 1921 Douglas Fairbanks production, directed by Fred Niblo, the 1935 RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. production, directed by Rowland V. Lee and starring Walter Abel, Paul Lucas and Margot Grahame, Richard Lester's 1974 Twentieth Century-Fox production starring Michael York, Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain, and Raquel Welch; and the 1993 Buena Vista release, directed by Stephen Herek and starring Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Chris O'Donnell, and Rebecca de Mornay. This splashy 1948 MGM adaptation of The Three Musketeers was the third sound version and was also the first version in Technicolor. In 1947, a representative of the National Catholic Legion of Decency, an organisation that monitored the interests of the Church in motion pictures, objected to the characterisation of Cardinal Richelieu in the planned MGM adaptation of Dumas' story. In a letter to MGM producer Pandro S. Berman, the organisation stated its objection to the cardinal being portrayed as a "worldly and unscrupulous man" and urged the studio to remove the character from the film. Berman refused to remove the character from the film but promised he would use great caution in all sensitive matters pertaining to the story and in the film, Richelieu is never referred to as Cardinal Richelieu. Berman also indicated that Constance, the married mistress of D'Artagnan in the novel, would be unmarried in the film version. While early sound versions of Three Musketeers eliminated the deaths of Constance and Milady, this adaptation telescopes the novel's events to allow for these tragedies. According to AFI, screenwriter Robert Ardry was displeased with Sidney's irreverent approach to the Dumas story and objected to the spoof elements that were added to the film. A biography of Kelly noted that Belgian fencing champion Jean Heremans, who appears in the film as the cardinal's guard, taught Kelly how to fence. Kelly's biography also noted that during the filming of a bedroom scene, Kelly flung Turner onto a bed with such force that she fell to the ground and suffered a broken elbow. Hal Erickson at AllMovie: “True to form, MGM saw to it that Lana Turner, as Milady, was dressed to the nines and heavily bejeweled for her beheading sequence. Portions of the 1948 Three Musketeers, in black and white, showed up in the silent film-within-a-film in 1952's Singin' in the Rain, which of course also starred Gene Kelly.” The Three Musketeers opened to mostly favourable reviews, with several reviewers commenting on the film's unusual tongue-in-cheek approach. New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther noted that "more glittering swordplay, more dazzling costumes, more colors or more of Miss Turner's chest have never been seen in a picture than are shown in this one." And added: “Completely fantastic, however, is Miss Turner as the villainness, the ambitious Lady de Winter who does the boudoir business for the boss. Loaded with blond hair and jewels, with twelve-gallon hats and ostrich plumes, and poured into her satin dresses with a good bit of Turner to spare, she walks through the palaces and salons with the air of a company-mannered Mae West.” In 1948, there was an Oscar nomination for Robert Planck in the category Best Cinematography/Colour. Hans J. Wollstein at AllMovie: “The Three Musketeers remains an outrageously entertaining yarn, the Southern California locales perfectly standing in for 17th Century France and England.” And finally, Yvette Banek at her blog In so many words: “Lana Turner is really quite superb in her evilness. So evil that she is even photographed without make-up. Well, as 'without make-up' as MGM got, at any rate. Even then, she is exquisitely beautiful - especially when praying.”

 

Sources: Bosley Crowther (New York Times), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Yvette Banek (In so many words), AFI, Wikipedia (Dutch, German), and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

If I can't hide away in a tropical paradise, then perhaps I should go live atop a tall pillar. At least I'd have good views.

 

I finally found out why my now ex-friend stopping talking to me. It would appear that they took offense to something I had said, which was taken a bit out of context. Had they bothered to try and sort things out like normal grown-ups would, they would have realized that it was all a big misunderstanding. Instead, they decided to abruptly end our friendship. What was worse was that they did not have the decency to tell me that our friendship was over. Why? I think I deserved a little better than to have been treated like dirt.

 

In other news, I'm getting sick of this free account. I keep getting asked if I'm a robot when I make apparently too many comments. How many is too many for me not to be considered human anyway? Oh, and I have some new toys. Can't wait to play!

East-German postcard by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb, Berlin, no. 184/70. Gregory Peck in Mackenna's Gold (J. Lee Thompson, 1969).

 

American actor Gregory Peck (1916-2003) was one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s. Peck received five nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won once – for his performance as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). He almost always played courageous, nobly heroic good guys who saw injustice and fought it. Among his best known films are Spellbound (1945), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Roman Holiday (1953), The Guns of Navarone (1961), and Cape Fear (1962).

 

Eldred Gregory Peck was born in 1916 in La Jolla, California (now in San Diego). His parents were Bernice Mary (Ayres) and Gregory Pearl Peck, a chemist, and druggist in San Diego. His parents divorced when he was five years old. An only child, he was sent to live with his grandmother. He never felt he had a stable childhood. His fondest memories are of his grandmother taking him to the cinema every week and of his dog, which followed him everywhere. Peck's father encouraged him to take up medicine. He studied pre-med at UC Berkeley and, while there, got bitten by the acting bug and decided to change the focus of his studies. He enrolled in the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and debuted on Broadway after graduation. His debut was in Emlyn Williams' play 'The Morning Star' (1942). By 1943, he was in Hollywood, where he debuted in the RKO film Days of Glory (Jacques Tourneur, 1944). Stardom came with his next film, The Keys of the Kingdom (John M. Stahl, 1944), for which he was nominated for an Oscar. Tony Fontana at IMDb: "Peck's screen presence displayed the qualities for which he became well known. He was tall, rugged and heroic, with a basic decency that transcended his roles." He appeared opposite Ingrid Bergman in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945) as an amnesia victim accused of murder. In The Yearling (Clarence Brown, 1946), he was again nominated for an Oscar and won the Golden Globe. He was especially effective in Westerns and appeared in such varied fare as David O. Selznick's critically blasted Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946), the somewhat better-received Yellow Sky (William A. Wellman, 1948), and the acclaimed The Gunfighter (Henry King, 1950). He was nominated again for the Academy Award for his roles in Gentleman's Agreement (Elia Kazan, 1947), which dealt with anti-Semitism, and Twelve O'Clock High (Henry King, 1949), a story of high-level stress in an Air Force bomber unit in World War II. In 1947, Peck, along with Dorothy McGuire, David O'Selznick, and Mel Ferrer, founded the La Jolla Playhouse, located in his hometown, and produced many of the classics there. Due to film commitments, he could not return to Broadway but whet his appetite for live theatre on occasion at the Playhouse, keeping it firmly established with a strong, reputable name over the years.

 

With a string of hits to his credit, Gregory Peck decided to only work in films that interested him. He continued to appear as the heroic, larger-than-life figure in such films as Captain Horatio Hornblower (Raoul Walsh, 1951) with Virginia Mayo, and Moby Dick (John Huston, 1956) with Richard Basehart. He worked with Audrey Hepburn in her debut film, Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953). While filming The Bravados (Henry King, 1958), he decided to become a cowboy in real life, so he purchased a vast working ranch near Santa Barbara, California - already stocked with 600 head of prize cattle. In the early 1960s, he gave a powerful performance as Captain Keith Mallory in The Guns of Navarone (J. Lee Thompson, 1961) opposite David Niven and Anthony Quinn. The film was one of the biggest box-office hits of that year. Peck finally won the Oscar, after four nominations, for his performance as lawyer Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962). He also appeared in two darker films than he usually made, Cape Fear (J. Lee Thompson, 1962) opposite Robert Mitchum, and Captain Newman, M.D. (David Miller, 1963) with Tony Curtis, which dealt with the way people live. The financial failure of Cape Fear (1962) ended his company, Melville Productions. After making Arabesque (Stanley Donen, 1966) with Sophia Loren, Peck withdrew from acting for three years in order to concentrate on various humanitarian causes, including the American Cancer Society. In the early 1970s, he produced two films, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Gordon Davidson, 1972) and The Dove (Charles Jarrott, 1974), when his film career stalled. He made a comeback playing, somewhat woodenly, Ambassador Robert Thorn in the horror film The Omen (Richard Donner, 1976) with Lee Remick. After that, he returned to the bigger-than-life roles he was best known for, such as MacArthur (Joseph Sargent, 1977) and the infamous Nazi war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele in the huge hit The Boys from Brazil (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1978) with Laurence Olivier and James Mason. In the 1980s, he moved into television with the miniseries The Blue and the Gray (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1982). He played Abraham Lincoln, and The Scarlet and the Black (Jerry London, 1983) with Christopher Plummer and John Gielgud. In 1991, he appeared in the remake of his 1962 film, playing a different role, in Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear (1991). He was also cast as the progressive-thinking owner of a wire and cable business in Other People's Money (Norman Jewison, 1991), starring Danny DeVito. In 1967, Peck received the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. He was also awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom. Always politically progressive, he was active in such causes as anti-war protests, workers' rights, and civil rights. In 2003, Peck's portrayal of Atticus Finch was named the greatest film hero of the past 100 years by the American Film Institute, only two weeks before his death. Atticus beat out Indiana Jones, who was placed second, and James Bond who came third. Gregory Peck died in 2003 in Los Angeles, California. He was 87. Peck was married twice. From 1942 to 1955, he was married to Greta Kukkonen. They had three children: Jonathan Peck (1944-1975), Stephen Peck (1946), and Carey Paul Peck (1949). His second wife was Veronique Passani, whom he met at the set of Roman Holliday. They married in 1955 and had two children: Tony Peck (1956) and Cecilia Peck (1958). The couple remained together till his death.

 

Sources: Tony Fontana (IMDb), and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Quite a shocking day of cold, windy, low cloud / fog all day today, despite this being 30 May. At least it had the decency to start raining just as I was taking this panorama out in the polder, after having threatened to for hours.

WestSide CITGO

Gas Station

Lottery Rules

Okay, well, so, I gave in to the temptation that I’d been feeling ever since I got Fiyero, and:

 

FIYERO: ‘EY!

 

NICK: Hmm, not bad at all. The pants are short and the waist is too low, but the jacket suits me very well, I’d say.

 

FIYERO: Why?!??

 

BRUNO: Who’s this clown? Beat it, buddy; there *are* decency laws, y’know.

 

NICK: What do you think, Nimmie?

 

NIMMIE: Well, on *you* it looks good.

 

FIYERO: Why do you hate me??!??!??

I am trying to make myself as conspicuous as possible while staying within the bounds of public decency.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

•

" The government of the United States does not, in its policies, express the decency of its people. "-- Jerry Fresia, author of Toward an American Revolution

This image is copyright, all rights reserved, and not part of the public domain. Any use, linking to, or posting of this image is prohibited without my consent. If you want to use this image in any fashion, please have the common courtesy and decency to ask.

 

Mossy Grotto Falls, Ruckle Creek, Columbia Gorge, Oregon

 

After toughing it out to get to the Mossy Grotto, it's nice to know that you've come upon a little slice of paradise. Douglas is a great guy to go hiking with, and we had a lot of fun exploring the Mossy Grotto. Well worth the risk to life and limb to get there.

 

Happy Waterfall Wednesday Everybody!

I like this sort of censoring. I like how it protects both the 'innocent' and the 'guilty'.

 

Please remember to abide by the Social Distancing Guidelines (which differ from country to country, of course). Thank You.

A gesture that would seem totally incongruous a short while ago: a young couple

holding hands in the streets of Pyongyang.

In North Korea, decency is not an old fashioned concept.

Seeing my surprise witnessing men dancing together during a giant ball, while lots

of girls were alone, my guide explained:

“it’s their first ball, they are shy. In your country, when it’s their first ball, do boys

find the courage to ask girls to dance?”, which left me speechless.

 

Geste totalement incongru il y a encore peu: un jeune couple main dans la main dans les

rues de Pyongyang.

La pudeur nord coréenne n’est pas un vain mot. Voyant des hommes danser ensemble

lors d’un bal géant alors que de nombreuses filles étaient seules, devant mon

étonnement , mon guide me répondit:

-c’est leur premier bal, ils sont timides. En France, les garçons invitent les filles à danser

la première fois?

-...

 

© Eric Lafforgue

www.ericlafforgue.com

Sikhism originated in the 15th century, in the Punjab region by Guru Nanak, who preached ideas that were radical for his age: he denounced Hinduism's oppressive caste system and Islam's gender discrimination, preaching that all people can commune with the divine equally, without the intervention of rituals or priests. The Sikh faith is a monotheistic religion, meaning Sikhs worship one God. The three core pillars of Sikhism are: vaṇḍ chakkō (sharing with others, helping those in need, as well as participating as part of a community), kirat karō (earning/making a living honestly, without exploitation or fraud, and speaking the truth at all times) and naam japna (meditating on God’s name to live a life of decency and humility).

The temporary distractions of the material world are seen as an illusion. The qualities of ego, anger, greed, attachment and lust are known as the Five Thieves that rob a person of their ability to realize their oneness with God and creation. Sikhs work to counteract the temptations of these qualities through the values of service, equality, and seeking justice for all. Sikhs also believe that one’s form on Earth is only a temporary vessel for the eternal soul. Thus, the death of the physical body is a natural part of the life cycle, while the soul remains. Death is not an end, but merely the progression of the soul on its journey toward God.

Nine more gurus succeeded Guru Nanak (Angad, Amar Das, Ram Das, Arjan, Har Gobind, Har Rai, Har Krishan, Tegh Bahadur, and Gobind Singh), and continued to spread his teachings across the world.

The last guru, Guru Gobind Singh, named the Sikh sacred text, the Guru Granth Sahib, to be the eternal Guru that would guide the Sikhs going forward. It consists of 1,430 Anks, or pages, and 6,000 Sabads, or line compositions, all are written in poetic verse and are aligning to the rhythmic forms of ancient north Indian classical music. At the core of the Guru Granth Sahib is a yearning for a world governed by divine justice, without oppression of any kind.

The final living guru, Gobind Singh, also established the Khalsa, or order of Sikh soldier-saints. They are recognizable by "The 5 k's," their physical articles of faith: Kesh (unshorn hair and beard), Kirpan (ceremonial sword), Kangha (comb), Kara (steel bracelet) and Kachha (drawers). The Dastar, or turban, is considered a spiritual crown, a token of remembrance of the Sikh principles.

 

Subathu, Himachal Pradesh, India

Catching up on some back shots from the beginning of the year

 

On a walk around the Addington Cemetery with a wonderful Flickr friend. February 13, 2016 Christchurch New Zealand.

 

There is so much damaged in the cemetery because of the earthquake we have had. It is such a pity as I don' think it will ever be fully repaired.

 

The Addington Cemetery was established in 1858 when the Scottish Presbyterians of St Andrew’s Church purchased land for a cemetery in Selwyn Street. Although not the first cemetery in Christchurch, Addington was in fact the first “public” cemetery, “being open to all persons of any religious community” and allowing the performance of any religious service “not contrary to public decency”.

 

The first burial took place on the 10th of November 1858. The cemetery has several persons of note buried within its grounds including activist Kate Sheppard, Christchurch Mayor Tommy Taylor and members of the pioneer family, the Deans.

For More Info:http://my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/addington-cemetery/

We Stand For Life

 

With a Danish Royal Navy helicopter buzzing around the the BRIGITTE BARDOT today it is becoming quite apparent that all is going as planned. The British police today reluctantly seized one of the small boats from the SAM SIMON in the Scottish Shetland Islands citing that it had been used to attempt to disrupt a whale slaughter. What this means is that Denmark is using EU laws and EU enforcement agreements to seize a Sea Shepherd boat from an EU registered ship in defense of an activity that is illegal under EU laws.

This is very good news. The reason this is good news will be understood at a future date. And if they try to seize one of the larger ships - even better.

Our angry little Danish prosecutor in the Faroes is so gung-ho in her lust to defend the carnage of the Grind that she is making one legal blunder after another, confident that her government will cover her mistakes with political muscle. But even the Danish government cannot manipulate the law when placed under international scrutiny and Sea Shepherd intends to intensify that scrutiny.

The legal guns are being readied and the real battles will soon commence.

Sea Shepherd does not go into battle with guns. We use something far more effective - cameras. Where once ships carried cannon we carry canons, as well as Nikons. Leicas, and such.

And soon it will be time to clear the decks to deploy the lawyers, the editors, the writers, and even more photographers and videographers.

For one thing is absolutely predictable and it is this. No matter what they seize, how many they arrest, the campaign to end this despicable, horrific, disgusting, and obscene nonsense called the "grindadrap" will win. It may take years but it will be ended because in the name of decency, compassion and the common good, there can be no justification for the extermination of entire family units of such intelligent, self aware, socially complex sentient beings as members of the dolphin family of species.

In the Cove at Taiji or on the bloody beaches of the Faroes, the forces of empathy will never surrender to the violent lust of murderous thugs.

And what is the loss of a boat compared to the loss of hundred of lives - lives filled with hope, with dreams, with love.

That is what we stand for and that is what we are fighting for.

Before the Goliaths of doom and death we humbly kneel and vow that no matter what they do, no matter what they say, we will never abandon those we have come to serve and protect.

The whalers and the Danish and Faroese governments represent death. We stand for life. There can be no justification for the former and no retreat from the latter.

 

Photo : Sea Shepherd

 

Italian postcard by W. Di Giovanni. Photo: Augusto Di Giovanni. Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953).

 

American actor Gregory Peck (1916-2003) was one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s. Peck received five nominations for Academy Award for Best Actor and won once – for his performance as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). He almost always played courageous, nobly heroic good guys who saw injustice and fought it. Among his best known films are Spellbound (1945), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Roman Holiday (1953), The Guns of Navarone (1961), and Cape Fear (1962).

 

Eldred Gregory Peck was born in 1916 in La Jolla, California (now in San Diego). His parents were Bernice Mary (Ayres) and Gregory Pearl Peck, a chemist, and druggist in San Diego. His parents divorced when he was five years old. An only child, he was sent to live with his grandmother. He never felt he had a stable childhood. His fondest memories are of his grandmother taking him to the cinema every week and of his dog, which followed him everywhere. Peck's father encouraged him to take up medicine. He studied pre-med at UC-Berkeley and, while there, got bitten by the acting bug and decided to change the focus of his studies. He enrolled in the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and debuted on Broadway after graduation. His debut was in Emlyn Williams' play 'The Morning Star' (1942). By 1943, he was in Hollywood, where he debuted in the RKO film Days of Glory (Jacques Tourneur, 1944). Stardom came with his next film, The Keys of the Kingdom (John M. Stahl, 1944), for which he was nominated for an Oscar. Tony Fontana at IMDb: "Peck's screen presence displayed the qualities for which he became well known. He was tall, rugged and heroic, with a basic decency that transcended his roles." He appeared opposite Ingrid Bergman in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945) as an amnesia victim accused of murder. In The Yearling (Clarence Brown, 1946), he was again nominated for an Oscar and won the Golden Globe. He was especially effective in Westerns and appeared in such varied fare as David O. Selznick's critically blasted Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946), the somewhat better received Yellow Sky (William A. Wellman, 1948), and the acclaimed The Gunfighter (Henry King, 1950). He was nominated again for the Academy Award for his roles in Gentleman's Agreement (Elia Kazan, 1947), which dealt with anti-Semitism, and Twelve O'Clock High (Henry King, 1949), a story of high-level stress in an Air Force bomber unit in World War II. In 1947, Peck, along with Dorothy McGuire, David O'Selznick, and Mel Ferrer, founded the La Jolla Playhouse, located in his hometown, and produced many of the classics there. Due to film commitments, he could not return to Broadway but whet his appetite for live theatre on occasion at the Playhouse, keeping it firmly established with a strong, reputable name over the years.

 

With a string of hits to his credit, Gregory Peck made the decision to only work in films that interested him. He continued to appear as the heroic, larger-than-life figures in such films as Captain Horatio Hornblower (Raoul Walsh, 1951) with Virginia Mayo, and Moby Dick (John Huston, 1956) with Richard Basehart. He worked with Audrey Hepburn in her debut film, Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953). While filming The Bravados (Henry King, 1958), he decided to become a cowboy in real life, so he purchased a vast working ranch near Santa Barbara, California - already stocked with 600 head of prize cattle. In the early 1960s, he gave a powerful performance as Captain Keith Mallory in The Guns of Navarone (J. Lee Thompson, 1961) opposite David Niven and Anthony Quinn. The film was one of the biggest box-office hits of that year. Peck finally won the Oscar, after four nominations, for his performance as lawyer Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962). He also appeared in two darker films than he usually made, Cape Fear (J. Lee Thompson, 1962) opposite Robert Mitchum, and Captain Newman, M.D. (David Miller, 1963) with Tony Curtis, which dealt with the way people live. The financial failure of Cape Fear (1962) ended his company, Melville Productions. After making Arabesque (Stanley Donen, 1966) with Sophia Loren, Peck withdrew from acting for three years in order to concentrate on various humanitarian causes, including the American Cancer Society. In the early 1970s, he produced two films, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Gordon Davidson, 1972) and The Dove (Charles Jarrott, 1974), when his film career stalled. He made a comeback playing, somewhat woodenly, Ambassador Robert Thorn in the horror film The Omen (Richard Donner, 1976) with Lee Remick. After that, he returned to the bigger-than-life roles he was best known for, such as MacArthur (Joseph Sargent, 1977) and the infamous Nazi war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele in the huge hit The Boys from Brazil (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1978) with Laurence Olivier and James Mason. In the 1980s, he moved into television with the miniseries The Blue and the Gray (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1982) in which he played Abraham Lincoln, and The Scarlet and the Black (Jerry London, 1983) with Christopher Plummer and John Gielgud. In 1991, he appeared in the remake of his 1962 film, playing a different role, in Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear (1991). He was also cast as the progressive-thinking owner of a wire and cable business in Other People's Money (Norman Jewison, 1991), starring Danny DeVito. In 1967, Peck received the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. He was also been awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom. Always politically progressive, he was active in such causes as anti-war protests, workers' rights, and civil rights. In 2003, Peck's portrayal of Atticus Finch was named the greatest film hero of the past 100 years by the American Film Institute, only two weeks before his death. Atticus beat out Indiana Jones, who was placed second, and James Bond who came third. Gregory Peck died in 2003 in Los Angeles, California. He was 87. Peck was married twice. From 1942 till 1955, he was married to Greta Kukkonen. They had three children: Jonathan Peck (1944-1975), Stephen Peck (1946), and Carey Paul Peck (1949). His second wife was Veronique Passani, whom he met at the set of Roman Holliday. They married in 1955 and had two children: Tony Peck (1956) and Cecilia Peck (1958). The couple remained together till his death.

 

Sources: Tony Fontana (IMDb), and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

American card by Movie Candid Color Card, Beverly Hills, Calif., no. A32. Photo: Frank Powolny / 20th Century Fox. Caption: Gregory Peck began his professional career in 1939 as a barker. After a few appearances on Broadway, screen writer Casey Robinson brought him to Hollywood where he rapidly became one of the screen's most sought after stars.

 

American actor Gregory Peck (1916-2003) was one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s. Peck received five nominations for Academy Award for Best Actor and won once – for his performance as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). He almost always played courageous, nobly heroic good guys who saw injustice and fought it. Among his best known films are Spellbound (1945), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Roman Holiday (1953), The Guns of Navarone (1961), and Cape Fear (1962).

 

Eldred Gregory Peck was born in 1916 in La Jolla, California (now in San Diego). His parents were Bernice Mary (Ayres) and Gregory Pearl Peck, a chemist, and druggist in San Diego. His parents divorced when he was five years old. An only child, he was sent to live with his grandmother. He never felt he had a stable childhood. His fondest memories are of his grandmother taking him to the cinema every week and of his dog, which followed him everywhere. Peck's father encouraged him to take up medicine. He studied pre-med at UC-Berkeley and, while there, got bitten by the acting bug and decided to change the focus of his studies. He enrolled in the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and debuted on Broadway after graduation. His debut was in Emlyn Williams' play 'The Morning Star' (1942). By 1943, he was in Hollywood, where he debuted in the RKO film Days of Glory (Jacques Tourneur, 1944). Stardom came with his next film, The Keys of the Kingdom (John M. Stahl, 1944), for which he was nominated for an Oscar. Tony Fontana at IMDb: "Peck's screen presence displayed the qualities for which he became well known. He was tall, rugged and heroic, with a basic decency that transcended his roles." He appeared opposite Ingrid Bergman in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945) as an amnesia victim accused of murder. In The Yearling (Clarence Brown, 1946), he was again nominated for an Oscar and won the Golden Globe. He was especially effective in Westerns and appeared in such varied fare as David O. Selznick's critically blasted Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946), the somewhat better received Yellow Sky (William A. Wellman, 1948), and the acclaimed The Gunfighter (Henry King, 1950). He was nominated again for the Academy Award for his roles in Gentleman's Agreement (Elia Kazan, 1947), which dealt with anti-Semitism, and Twelve O'Clock High (Henry King, 1949), a story of high-level stress in an Air Force bomber unit in World War II. In 1947, Peck, along with Dorothy McGuire, David O'Selznick, and Mel Ferrer, founded the La Jolla Playhouse, located in his hometown, and produced many of the classics there. Due to film commitments, he could not return to Broadway but whet his appetite for live theatre on occasion at the Playhouse, keeping it firmly established with a strong, reputable name over the years.

 

With a string of hits to his credit, Gregory Peck made the decision to only work in films that interested him. He continued to appear as the heroic, larger-than-life figures in such films as Captain Horatio Hornblower (Raoul Walsh, 1951) with Virginia Mayo, and Moby Dick (John Huston, 1956) with Richard Basehart. He worked with Audrey Hepburn in her debut film, Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953). While filming The Bravados (Henry King, 1958), he decided to become a cowboy in real life, so he purchased a vast working ranch near Santa Barbara, California - already stocked with 600 head of prize cattle. In the early 1960s, he gave a powerful performance as Captain Keith Mallory in The Guns of Navarone (J. Lee Thompson, 1961) opposite David Niven and Anthony Quinn. The film was one of the biggest box-office hits of that year. Peck finally won the Oscar, after four nominations, for his performance as lawyer Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962). He also appeared in two darker films than he usually made, Cape Fear (J. Lee Thompson, 1962) opposite Robert Mitchum, and Captain Newman, M.D. (David Miller, 1963) with Tony Curtis, which dealt with the way people live. The financial failure of Cape Fear (1962) ended his company, Melville Productions. After making Arabesque (Stanley Donen, 1966) with Sophia Loren, Peck withdrew from acting for three years in order to concentrate on various humanitarian causes, including the American Cancer Society. In the early 1970s, he produced two films, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Gordon Davidson, 1972) and The Dove (Charles Jarrott, 1974), when his film career stalled. He made a comeback playing, somewhat woodenly, Ambassador Robert Thorn in the horror film The Omen (Richard Donner, 1976) with Lee Remick. After that, he returned to the bigger-than-life roles he was best known for, such as MacArthur (Joseph Sargent, 1977) and the infamous Nazi war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele in the huge hit The Boys from Brazil (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1978) with Laurence Olivier and James Mason. In the 1980s, he moved into television with the miniseries The Blue and the Gray (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1982) in which he played Abraham Lincoln, and The Scarlet and the Black (Jerry London, 1983) with Christopher Plummer and John Gielgud. In 1991, he appeared in the remake of his 1962 film, playing a different role, in Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear (1991). He was also cast as the progressive-thinking owner of a wire and cable business in Other People's Money (Norman Jewison, 1991), starring Danny DeVito. In 1967, Peck received the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. He was also been awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom. Always politically progressive, he was active in such causes as anti-war protests, workers' rights, and civil rights. In 2003, Peck's portrayal of Atticus Finch was named the greatest film hero of the past 100 years by the American Film Institute, only two weeks before his death. Atticus beat out Indiana Jones, who was placed second, and James Bond who came third. Gregory Peck died in 2003 in Los Angeles, California. He was 87. Peck was married twice. From 1942 till 1955, he was married to Greta Kukkonen. They had three children: Jonathan Peck (1944-1975), Stephen Peck (1946), and Carey Paul Peck (1949). His second wife was Veronique Passani, whom he met at the set of Roman Holliday. They married in 1955 and had two children: Tony Peck (1956) and Cecilia Peck (1958). The couple remained together till his death.

 

Sources: Tony Fontana (IMDb), and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Bessa

Voigtländer A.G. Braunschweig

Rollfilm Kamera 6x9/4,5x6

1937

lens

Voigtar 1:4,5 F=11

shutter

Prontor II

Alfred Gauthier Calmbach

 

1937 wurde die Kamera so beworben:

Flach, elegant und springlebendig ist sie, die Bessa. Sie verlangt keine umständliche Behandlung und keine großen Fotokenntnisse.

Ob Sommer oder Winter, ob Tag oder Nacht – zu jeder Stunde können Sie mit der Bessa knipsen, wenn nur irgendwoher ein wenig Licht auf das Motiv fällt. Sie können sogar – und das ist das Fabelhafte – mit Hilfe des Auslösers am „Laufboden“ (D.R.P.) noch Aufnahmen aus freier Hand machen, wenn andere schon längst zum Stativ greifen mussten.

Immer und überallhin können Sie diese leichte, schlanke Kamera mitnehmen, und das Knipsen macht noch mal so viel Spaß, weil es so riesig einfach ist. Im Handumdrehen ist man „schußfertig“, und ebenso schnell hat man die Aufnahme auch schon gemacht.

Bildgröße nach Wunsch:

Nicht nur Aufnahmen im 6x9-Format, nein, auch Kleinbildaufnahmen können Sie mit der Bessa machen. Mit einem Handgriff ist die Kleinbildmaske eingesetzt, und jetzt bekommen Sie 16 Aufnahmen 4 1/2 x6 cm auf einen Film anstelle von 8 Aufnahmen 6x9 cm. Feine Sache, was? Man kauft sich eine Kamera und hat praktisch zwei.

 

Wenige Jahre später hatte "schußfertig sein" nichts mehr mit Fotografie zu tun.

Am 1. September 1939 begann mit dem Überfall auf Polen der 2. Weltkrieg.

Voigtländer stellte die Kameraproduktion ein und produzierte nur noch kriegswichtige Güter.

Schon 1937, als diese Kamera auf den Markt gebracht wurde, waren Parlamentarismus, Rechtsstaat und gesellschaftlicher Anstand im damaligen "Deutschen Reich" bereits untergegangen.

Unmittelbar nach Kriegsbeginn folgte im Herrschaftsbereich der Nationalsozialisten eine massenhafte Ermordung von Juden und anderen Volksgruppen, politischen Gegnern und Behinderten, die bis zum Ende des Krieges und dem Untergang des Deutschen Reiches 1945 andauern sollte.

Von 1949 bis 1990 existierten zwei deutsche Nationalstaaten, die Bundesrepublik Deutschland (BRD) und die Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR).

Seit der Wiedervereinigung der beiden Nationalstaaten 1990, existiert „Deutschland“ als souveräner Nationalstaat.

  

In 1937 the camera was advertised like this:

Flat, elegant and vivacious is she, the Bessa. It does not require any complicated handling and no great photographic knowledge.

Whether summer or winter, day or night - you can take pictures with the Bessa at any hour, if only a little light falls on the subject somewhere. You can even - and this is the fabulous thing about it - use the shutter release on the "Laufboden" (D.R.P.=Deutsches Reichs Patent) to take pictures freehand when others have long since had to reach for a tripod.

You can take this light, slim camera with you wherever you go, and taking pictures is even more fun because it's so incredibly easy. You'll be "ready to shoot" in no time at all, and you'll have your shot just as quickly.

Picture size as desired:

Not only shots in 6x9 format, no, you can also take 35mm shots with the Bessa. The mask is inserted with a flick of the wrist, and now you get 16 shots 4 1/2 x6 cm on one film instead of 8 shots 6x9 cm. A fine thing, huh? You buy one camera and practically have two.

 

A few years later, "being ready to shoot" no longer had anything to do with photography.

On September 1, 1939, the Second World War began with the invasion of Poland.

Voigtländer stopped the camera production and produced only war important goods.

Already in 1937, when this camera was launched on the market, parliamentarianism, the rule of law and social decency in former "German Reich" had already perished

Immediately after the beginning of the war there was a mass murder of Jews and other ethnic groups, political opponents and disabled people in the National Socialist area, which was to last until the end of the war and Decline of the German Reich in 1945.

From 1949 to 1990 there were two German nation states, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

Since the reunification of the two nation states 1990, "Germany" exists as a sovereign nation state.

  

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

  

Korea's first-edition Warner Brothers release of "The Exorcist" features the iconic still, said to be influenced by a Magritte painting, of Max von Sydow in the fog. Unusual ex-rental features a "Viewing allowed by youngsters" green label at the bottom - perhaps a nod to the Catholic Legion of Decency's giving the film a lenient A-4 "Morally acceptable in part for adults, with reservations." Several imitations were slapped with the dreaded "C" (Condemned) rating at the time. Once a common tape, now scarce.

I am so pleased to find a Flickr group dedicated to public toilets. I thought I was a bit wierd in liking to toilets and wanting to take photographs. Well, OK, it is wierd! I might now try it more often, common decency and the law permitting?

[Twitter] -- [Website] -- [Facebook] -- [Blog] *NEW*

 

Canon 5DmkII + Canon 17-40mm f/4.0L USM + HOYA NDx400 + Cokin P.121s

 

Crazy Crazy Crazy.... Had some awesome times this morning. We arrived at the wreck early, about 4am, and managed to get off a shot or two before it started to pelt down rain. Lucky the pktWeather app on the iPhone provided me with some BOM RADAR images so I was forewarned enough to be prepared for the event. Then when that stopped, it was back out to continue shooting.

 

About a half hour before sunrise Simon Diete wandered down to the beach to join us. And not too long after that, some pretty rude people came down to completely ruin the photographic experience.

 

Walking in front of the camera, walking all about the wreck, mucking up the pristine sand, no asking "hey man, mind if we just quickly jump in front of you to grab a shot."

 

It was entirely unnecessary, entirely unprofessional, and just plain ruined the morning for everyone. It really does just put you off visiting places like this if people can't have some common sense and decency to make sure other people are enjoying themselves too, and not making them want to punch you in the head.

 

Yeah, it made me a little angry...

 

Anyway, I've had the 5DmkII for a week now, check out my thoughts on it.

is sad and sorry for the tragic killings in his country these past days. He's sad and sorry for the victims, and sad and sorry because he is beginning to realize what it would have been like to live in Germany in the 1930's, and he knows nothing is going to change now until new leaders are elected, and, even then not much may change, but just maybe, some of his country's policies may regain some decency and common sense. Photo by Frank.

Belgian postcard, no. 96.

 

Voluptuous American actress Mamie Van Doren (1931) was a sex symbol of the 1950s and 1960s. Van Doren starred in several exploitation films such as Untamed Youth (1957), loaded with rock 'n' roll and juvenile delinquency. Her onscreen wardrobe usually consisted of tight sweaters, low-cut blouses, form-fitting dresses, and daring swimsuits. Mamie and her colleague blonde bombshells Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield were known as 'The Three M's.'

 

Mamie Van Doren was born Joan Lucille Olander in Rowena, South Dakota, in 1931. She was the daughter of Warner Carl Olander and Lucille Harriet Bennett. In 1942 the family moved to Los Angeles. In early 1946, Van Doren began working as an usher at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. The following year, she had a bit part on an early television show. She also sang with Ted Fio Rito's band and entered several beauty contests. She was married for a brief time at seventeen when Van Doren and her first husband, Jack Newman, eloped to Santa Barbara. The marriage was dissolved quickly, upon her discovery of his abusive nature. In the summer of 1949, at age 18, she won the titles Miss Eight Ball and Miss Palm Springs. Van Doren was discovered by producer Howard Hughes the night she was crowned Miss Palm Springs. The pair dated for five years. Hughes provided her with a bit role in Jet Pilot at RKO Radio Pictures. Her line of dialogue inconsisted of one word, "Look!". The following year, 1951, she posed for famous pin-up girl artist Alberto Vargas, the painter of the glamorous Vargas Girls. His painting of Van Doren was on the July 1951 cover of Esquire magazine. Van Doren did a few more bit parts in RKO films, including His Kind of Woman (John Farrow, 1951) starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell. Van Doren then began working on the stage. She was a showgirl in New York in Monte Proser's nightclub version of Billion Dollar Baby. Songwriter Jimmy McHugh discovered her for his musicals, then decided she was too good for the chorus line and should have dramatic training. She studied with Ben Bard and Bliss-Hayden. While appearing in the role of Marie in a showcase production of Come Back, Little Sheba, Van Doren was seen by Phil Benjamin, a casting director at Universal International. In 1953, Van Doren signed a contract with Universal Studios. They had big plans for her, hoping she would bring the same kind of success that 20th Century Fox had with Marilyn Monroe. Van Doren, whose signing day coincided with the inauguration of President Eisenhower, was given the first name Mamie for Ike's wife, Mamie Eisenhower. Universal first cast Van Doren in a minor role as a singer in Forbidden (Rudolph Maté, 1953), starring Tony Curtis. Interested in Van Doren's allure, Universal then cast her again opposite Curtis in The All American (Jesse Hibbs, 1953), playing her first major role as Susie Ward, a wayward girl who is the man-trap at a campus beer joint. In Yankee Pasha (Joseph Pevney, 1954), starring Jeff Chandler and Rhonda Fleming, she played a slave girl, Lilith. In 1955, she had a supporting role in the musical Ain't Misbehavin' (Edward Buzzell, 1955) and starred in the crime-drama Running Wild (Abner Biberman, 1955). Soon thereafter, Van Doren turned down a Broadway role in the play Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, and was replaced by newcomer Jayne Mansfield. In 1956, Van Doren appeared in the Western Star in the Dust (Charles F. Haas, 1956). Though Van Doren garnered prominent billing alongside John Agar and Richard Boone, she appears rather briefly, as the daughter of a ranch owner. By this time, Van Doren had grown tired of Universal, which was only casting her in non-breakthrough roles. Therefore, Van Doren began accepting bigger roles in better movies from other studios, such as Teacher's Pet (George Seaton, 1958) with Doris Day and Clark Gable. She appeared in some of the first films to feature rock 'n' roll music, such as Untamed Youth (Howard W. Koch, 1957). The film was originally condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency, but that only served to enhance the curiosity factor, resulting in it being a big moneymaker for the studio. Van Doren became identified with this rebellious style, and made some rock records. She went to star in several bad girl movies that later became cult films. These include Born Reckless (Howard W. Koch, 1958), High School Confidential (Jack Arnold, 1958), and The Beat Generation (Charles F. Haas, 1959). After Universal Studios chose not to renew her contract in 1959, Van Doren was now a free agent and had to struggle to find work.

 

Mamie Van Doren became known for her provocative roles. She was in prison for Girls Town (Charles F. Haas, 1959), which provoked censors with a shower scene where audiences could see Van Doren's naked back. As Eve in The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (Mickey Rooney, Albert Zugsmith, 1960) she wore only fig leaves, and in other films, like Vice Raid (Edward L. Cahn, 1960) audiences were clued in as to the nature of the films from the titles. Many of these productions were low-budget B-movies which sometimes gained a cult following for their high camp value. An example is Sex Kittens Go to College (Albert Zugsmith, 1960), which co-starred Tuesday Weld and Mijanou Bardot - Brigitte's sister. Mamie also appeared in foreign productions, such as the Italian crime comedy Le bellissime gambe di Sabrina/The Beautiful Legs of Sabrina (Camillo Mastrocinque, 1959) with Antonio Cifariello, and the Argentine film Una americana en Buenos Aires/The Blonde from Buenos Aires (George Cahan, 1961) with Jean-Pierre Aumont. Van Doren took some time off from her career and came back to the screen in 1964. That year she played in the German Western musical Freddy und das Lied der Prärie/In the Wild West (Sobey Martin, 1964), starring Freddy Quinn and Rik Battaglia. Tommy Noonan convinced Van Doren to appear in 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt (Tommy Noonan, 1964). Van Doren had turned down Noonan's previous offer to star in Promises! Promises!, in which she would have to do nude scenes. She was replaced by Jayne Mansfield. In 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt, Mamie did a beer-bath scene, but is not seen nude. She posed for Playboy to promote the film. Van Doren next appeared in The Las Vegas Hillbillys (Arthur C. Pierce, 1966) which co-starred Jayne Mansfield. It was the only time two of 'The Three M's' appeared together in a film. A sequel was titled Hillbillys in a Haunted House, but Van Doren turned this role down, and was replaced by Joi Lansing. She appeared in You've Got to Be Smart (Ellis Kadison, 1967), and the Sci-Fi film, Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968), directed by the young Peter Bogdanovich (as Derek Thomas). In this film astronauts land on Venus and encounter dangerous creatures and meet sexy Venusian women who like to sun-bathe in hip-hugging skin-tight pants and seashell brassieres. In 1968, she was offered the role of a murder victim in the independent horror film The Ice House as a replacement for Mansfield, who died the previous year. She turned the offer down, however, and was replaced by Sabrina. During the Vietnam War, she did tours for U.S. troops in Vietnam for three months in 1968, and again in 1970. Van Doren also developed a nightclub act and did live theatre. She performed in stage productions of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Dames at Sea at the Drury Lane Theater, Chicago, and appeared in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and The Tender Trap at the Arlington Park Theater. In the 1970s, Van Doren performed a nightclub act in Las Vegas as well. Van Doren had a supporting role in the Western The Arizona Kid (Luciano B. Carlos, 1970). Since then, Van Doren has appeared only in cameo appearances in low-budgeted films. To this date Van Doren's last film appearance was a cameo role in the comedy Slackers (Dewey Nicks, 2002). Van Doren's guest appearances on television include Jukebox Jury, What's My Line, The Bob Cummings Show, The Jack Benny Show, Fantasy Island, Burke's Law, Vega$, and L.A. Law. She released her autobiography, Playing the Field, in 1987 which brought much new attention and proved to be her biggest media splash in over 25 years. Since the book's publication she has often been interviewed and profiled and has occasionally returned to acting. Van Doren has been married five times. Her first marriage was to sportswear manufacturer Jack Newman whom she married and divorced in 1950. Her second marriage was to bandleader, composer and actor Ray Anthony whom she married in 1955. They had one son, Perry Ray Anthony (1956). The couple later divorced in 1961. When Van Doren's early 1960s, highly publicized, on-again off-again engagement to baseball player Bo Belinsky ended in 1964, she married baseball player Lee Meyers in 1966. They were divorced in 1967. Her fourth marriage was to businessman Ross McClintock in 1972. They met while working on President Nixon's reelection campaign; the marriage was annulled in 1973. Since 1979 she has been married to Thomas Dixon, an actor and dentist.

 

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

www.thelivingmoon.com/49ufo_files/03files2/Black_Knight_S...

"Black Knight" Satellite

What is the "Black Knight" satellite? It is a mysterious satellite, of unknown origin, discovered in 1960 which shadowed Sputnik. It is believed to have been of extraterrestrial origin, and signaled back old radio waves from the 1920s and 1930s before it disappeared. In short wave patterns analyzed by astronomer Duncan Lunan, it revealed its origin as Epsilon Boötes (or the star system as it was 13,000 years ago).

In "Disneyland of the Gods", by John Keel, he reports in depth on this satellite:

"In February 1960 the US detected an unknown object in polar orbit, a feat that neither they or the USSR had been able to accomplish. As if that wasn't enough, it apparently was several sizes larger than anything either country would have been able to get off the ground.

And then, the oddness began. HAM operators began to receive strange coded messages. One person in particular said he managed to decode one of the transmissions, and it corresponded to a star chart. A star chart which would have been plotted from earth 13,000 years ago, and focused on the Epsilon Bostes star system.

On September 3, 1960, seven months after the satellite was first detected by radar, a tracking camera at Grumman Aircraft Corporation's Long Island factory took a photograph of it. People on the ground had been occasionally seeing it for about two weeks at that point. Viewers would make it out as a red glowing object moving in an east-to-west orbit. Most satellites of the time, according to what little material I've been able to find on the black knight satellite, moved from west-to-east. It's speed was also about three times normal. A committee was formed to examine it, but nothing more was ever made public.

Three years later, Gordon Cooper was launched into space for a 22 orbit mission. On his final orbit, he reported seeing a glowing green shape ahead of his capsule, and heading in his direction. It's said that the Muchea tracking station, in Australia, which Cooper reported this too was also able to pick it up on radar traveling in an east-to-west orbit. This event was reported by NBC, but reporters were forbidden to ask Cooper about the event on his landing. The official explanation is that an electrical malfunction in the capsule had caused high levels of carbon dioxide, which induced hallucinations.[1]"

Now, I [webmaster] haven't been able to find reports on this satellite from any news source, but given the recently discovered photos from Russian satellite footage and the stories regarding unknown objects that the early US astronauts saw, I'm inclined to believe this satellite existed. However, the question is its origin- was it a secret US military project, an artifact from earlier in history, or extraterrestrial? The evidence is insufficient to determine the answer.

Call of The Black Knight

By TheAllSeeingI | Published: August 10, 2010

"Our home is Epsilon Boötis, which is a double star. We live on the sixth planet of seven—check that, the sixth of seven—counting outwards from the sun, which is the larger of the two stars. Our sixth planet has one moon. Our fourth planet has three. Our first and third planet each have one. Our probe is in the orbit of your moon."

–signal translation originating from ‘The Black Knight’ Satellite, Time Magazine April 9, 1973

In 1953, four years before the U.S.S.R. launched Sputnik I, an object of unknown origin was sighted by Dr Lincoln La Paz of the University of New Mexico orbiting the earth. As more reports of sightings trickled in from around the world, the U.S. Department of Defense appointed distinguished astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh (best known for his discovery of the dwarf ‘planet’ of Pluto in 1930) to run a search for the mystery object. The blip became known as "Black Knight".

The Pentagon never formally released the results of Dr Tombaugh’s study. No more was heard about the object until December, 1957, when Dr Luis Corralos of the Communications Ministry in Venezuela photographed it. The first modern satellites, Sputnik I & 2, had been launched just a few months earlier. Dr Corralos was taking pictures of the second of these modern marvels as it passed over Caracas, and his photos caught the unknown object shadowing the Russian craft.

"Black Knight" was observed once again in 1960, this time by one of the stations that formed the Northern American Air Defense System. The object was in a polar orbit, something that neither the Americans or Soviets were capable of at the time. Several times larger and heavier than anything capable of being launched with 1960 rockets, it shouldn’t have been there, but it was. The observance sent panic through the U.S. military. Not only did the intelligence agencies have no idea that the USSR had launched a new satellite, nothing in their reports on Soviet space activity suggested they had the capacity to place an object into a polar orbit, or to launch something that was estimated to be in excess of 15 tons. The military scientists were horrified, since they were at least four years away from achieving polar orbits and getting payloads that large into space.

Similar waves of shock and anxiety were spreading through the Soviet ranks. They had not launched the satellite and knew they were years away from being able to accomplish such a feat, they also knew that the Americans could not do it either. No one knew where it came from, but it was definitely there.

Three years later Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper was launched into space on his 22 orbit mission in the Faith 7 capsule. On his final orbit, he reported seeing a glowing green shape ahead of his capsule, and heading in his direction. The Muchea tracking station, in Australia, which Cooper reported this too was also able to pick it up on radar traveling in an east-to-west orbit. This event was reported by NBC, but reporters were forbidden to ask Cooper about the event on his landing. The official explanation is that an electrical malfunction in the capsule had caused high levels of carbon dioxide, which induced hallucinations.

If this weren’t enough, Ham radio operators worldwide had been receiving messages from Black Knight. Perhaps the strangest phenomenon associated with the Black Knight was the Long Delay Echo (LDE). The effect observed was that radio or television signals sent into space bounce back seconds (or even days) later, as if recorded and retransmitted by a satellite. First indentified over 30 years earlier by Norwegian geophysicist Carl Stormer and a Dutch collaborator Balthasar van der Pol, the duo discovered that short wave radio messages were followed by mysterious echoes that were picked up at indiscriminate intervals after the original transmissions. Indeed, the delays were so long that they could not be readily attributed to atmospheric quirks, magnetic storms or other natural phenomena. To this day, scientists have been unable to solve the mystery of the echoes.

Scottish Astronomer and science writer Duncan Lunan, in a paper presented to the British Interplanetary Society in 1973, noticed a correspondence between the LDE effect and the periodic appearances of Black Knight. To go further, he claimed that these "echoes" carried messages and star map which he had decoded. Lunan theorized the messages may have been relayed to earth by a robot spacecraft from a highly advanced civilization far beyond the solar system. More astonishing, Lunan added, the automatic vehicle may have been circling the moon for thousands of years, waiting patiently for earthlings to acquire the necessary know-how to contact it.

In 1960 Radio Astronomer Ronald Bracewell of Stanford University speculated on life elsewhere in the galaxy. An article published in Nature offered the theory that an advanced civilization might not necessarily use long-range radio signals to communicate with other intelligent beings. Such signals would be considerably weakened over interstellar distances. Instead, Bracewell said, those far-off beings might employ robot space probes as their message bearers. Sent to a promising nearby star, such a vehicle could swing into an orbit around it at approximately the right distance to encounter a planet with life-supporting temperatures. If it picked up telltale radio signals, the probe might then bounce them back to advertise its presence, thereby producing an effect like the echoes of the 1920s. Finally, as its first message, the robot might transmit a picture of the area of the heavens from which it came.

images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0PDoKiAolxSoC...

The Black Knight Satellite that could be thousands of years old

Posted by prayingforoneday on October 8, 2013

nasa ufo black night

An interesting video on the history of the Black Knight. A satellite that was located in space in the 1960. It neither belonged to the Russians or the Americans.. Some people think it spans back to a previous civilisation on earth and some think it is an alien craft.

In 1899 Tesla discovered an electronic signal that he believed was coming from space. Signal where later picked up in the 1920s by HAM radio enthusiasts, it was coming from 400/600 feet up they eventually found out after at first thought it was coming from Mars. So to start, this thing is 100% in orbit, it’s transmitting, so it can’t be a lost piece of NASA tools or covers etc ok, we clear, agree? ok……

1960 North American System Listening Station picked up a radar echo. They had detected an unknown satellite in orbit. R.Johnson director of the Adler Planetarium was involved, Google him, why was he involved? The object does not even have the decency to maintain a regular schedule like any other heavenly body or man made object we have ever seen. It appears some nights and some nights it does not.

The satellite was in a polar orbit. It was further revealed that this could not have been the work of either Russia or the USA as they could not achieve polar orbit at the time. The USA named the satellite the Black Knight. A special committee was formed to gather information on the mysterious satellite.. An article was put into time magazine about it. The satellite was photographed on 3rd September 1960 Long Island and Some seven months after it first appeared on radar image. On 1963 it was seen by an astronaut going into space.

On December 1998 The space craft endeavour was making a journey to the Space Station it recorded several images that many people think to be the Black Knight. The links to the images are on the video.

The object is still believed to be in Orbit to this day. NASA explanation to what the object is has changed several times. and that is a “Conspiracy” They are not all fake, some are true, below I don’t believe too much said by Nostradamus, but here is one of his quatrains (Small visions) What you think?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT4Vq32zlDs#t=12

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlkV1ybBnHI#t=45

prayingforoneday.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/the-black-knigh...

www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sEuDK...

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In the good old days the chavs had the decency to actually deface places with skill! Not like our lightweight modern counterparts!

 

Eeee the youth of today eh!

 

French postcard in the Entr'acte series by Éditions Asphodèle. Mâcon, no. 001/03. Gregory Peck and Karl Struss on the set of The Macomber Affair/Without Honor (Zoltan Korda, 1947). Caption: Low angle on Gregory Peck, on camera Karl Struss (middle).

 

American actor Gregory Peck (1916-2003) was one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s. Peck received five nominations for Academy Award for Best Actor and won once – for his performance as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). He almost always played courageous, nobly heroic good guys who saw injustice and fought it. Among his best known films are Spellbound (1945), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Roman Holiday (1953), The Guns of Navarone (1961), and Cape Fear (1962).

 

Eldred Gregory Peck was born in 1916 in La Jolla, California (now in San Diego). His parents were Bernice Mary (Ayres) and Gregory Pearl Peck, a chemist and druggist in San Diego. His parents divorced when he was five years old. An only child, he was sent to live with his grandmother. He never felt he had a stable childhood. His fondest memories are of his grandmother taking him to the cinema every week and of his dog, which followed him everywhere. Peck's father encouraged him to take up medicine. He studied pre-med at UC-Berkeley and, while there, got bitten by the acting bug and decided to change the focus of his studies. He enrolled in the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York and debuted on Broadway after graduation. His debut was in Emlyn Williams' play 'The Morning Star' (1942). By 1943, he was in Hollywood, where he debuted in the RKO film Days of Glory (Jacques Tourneur, 1944). Stardom came with his next film, The Keys of the Kingdom (John M. Stahl, 1944), for which he was nominated for an Oscar. Tony Fontana at IMDb: "Peck's screen presence displayed the qualities for which he became well known. He was tall, rugged and heroic, with a basic decency that transcended his roles." He appeared opposite Ingrid Bergman in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945) as an amnesia victim accused of murder. In The Yearling (Clarence Brown, 1946), he was again nominated for an Oscar and won the Golden Globe. He was especially effective in Westerns and appeared in such varied fare as David O. Selznick's critically blasted Duel in the Sun (King Vidor, 1946), the somewhat better received Yellow Sky (William A. Wellman, 1948) and the acclaimed The Gunfighter (Henry King, 1950). He was nominated again for the Academy Award for his roles in Gentleman's Agreement (Elia Kazan, 1947), which dealt with anti-Semitism, and Twelve O'Clock High (Henry King, 1949), a story of high-level stress in an Air Force bomber unit in World War II. In 1947, Peck, along with Dorothy McGuire, David O'Selznick and Mel Ferrer, founded the La Jolla Playhouse, located in his hometown, and produced many of the classics there. Due to film commitments, he could not return to Broadway but whet his appetite for live theatre on occasion at the Playhouse, keeping it firmly established with a strong, reputable name over the years.

 

With a string of hits to his credit, Gregory Peck made the decision to only work in films that interested him. He continued to appear as the heroic, larger-than-life figures in such films as Captain Horatio Hornblower (Raoul Walsh, 1951) with Virginia Mayo, and Moby Dick (John Huston, 1956) with Richard Basehart. He worked with Audrey Hepburn in her debut film, Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953). While filming The Bravados (Henry King, 1958), he decided to become a cowboy in real life, so he purchased a vast working ranch near Santa Barbara, California - already stocked with 600 head of prize cattle. In the early 1960s, he gave a powerful performance as Captain Keith Mallory in The Guns of Navarone (J. Lee Thompson, 1961) opposite David Niven and Anthony Quinn. The film was one of the biggest box-office hits of that year. Peck finally won the Oscar, after four nominations, for his performance as lawyer Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert Mulligan, 1962). He also appeared in two darker films than he usually made, Cape Fear (J. Lee Thompson, 1962) opposite Robert Mitchum, and Captain Newman, M.D. (David Miller, 1963) with Tony Curtis, which dealt with the way people live. The financial failure of Cape Fear (1962) ended his company, Melville Productions. After making Arabesque (Stanley Donen, 1966) with Sophia Loren, Peck withdrew from acting for three years in order to concentrate on various humanitarian causes, including the American Cancer Society. In the early 1970s, he produced two films, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine (Gordon Davidson, 1972) and The Dove (Charles Jarrott, 1974), when his film career stalled. He made a comeback playing, somewhat woodenly, Ambassador Robert Thorn in the horror film The Omen (Richard Donner, 1976) with Lee Remick. After that, he returned to the bigger-than-life roles he was best known for, such as MacArthur (Joseph Sargent, 1977) and the infamous Nazi war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele in the huge hit The Boys from Brazil (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1978) with Laurence Olivier and James Mason. In the 1980s, he moved into television with the miniseries The Blue and the Gray (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1982) in which he played Abraham Lincoln, and The Scarlet and the Black (Jerry London, 1983) with Christopher Plummer and John Gielgud. In 1991, he appeared in the remake of his 1962 film, playing a different role, in Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear (1991). He was also cast as the progressive-thinking owner of a wire and cable business in Other People's Money (Norman Jewison, 1991), starring Danny DeVito. In 1967, Peck received the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. He was also been awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom. Always politically progressive, he was active in such causes as anti-war protests, workers' rights, and civil rights. In 2003, Peck's portrayal of Atticus Finch was named the greatest film hero of the past 100 years by the American Film Institute, only two weeks before his death. Atticus beat out Indiana Jones, who was placed second, and James Bond who came third. Gregory Peck died in 2003 in Los Angeles, California. He was 87. Peck was married twice. From 1942 till 1955, he was married to Greta Kukkonen. They had three children: Jonathan Peck (1944-1975), Stephen Peck (1946) and Carey Paul Peck (1949). His second wife was Veronique Passani, whom he met at the set of Roman Holliday. They married in 1955 and had two children: Tony Peck (1956) and Cecilia Peck (1958). The couple remained together till his death.

 

Sources: Tony Fontana (IMDb), and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Sikhism originated in the 15th century, in the Punjab region by Guru Nanak, who preached ideas that were radical for his age: he denounced Hinduism's oppressive caste system and Islam's gender discrimination, preaching that all people can commune with the divine equally, without the intervention of rituals or priests. The Sikh faith is a monotheistic religion, meaning Sikhs worship one God. The three core pillars of Sikhism are: vaṇḍ chakkō (sharing with others, helping those in need, as well as participating as part of a community), kirat karō (earning/making a living honestly, without exploitation or fraud, and speaking the truth at all times) and naam japna (meditating on God’s name to live a life of decency and humility).

The temporary distractions of the material world are seen as an illusion. The qualities of ego, anger, greed, attachment and lust are known as the Five Thieves that rob a person of their ability to realize their oneness with God and creation. Sikhs work to counteract the temptations of these qualities through the values of service, equality, and seeking justice for all. Sikhs also believe that one’s form on Earth is only a temporary vessel for the eternal soul. Thus, the death of the physical body is a natural part of the life cycle, while the soul remains. Death is not an end, but merely the progression of the soul on its journey toward God.

Nine more gurus succeeded Guru Nanak (Angad, Amar Das, Ram Das, Arjan, Har Gobind, Har Rai, Har Krishan, Tegh Bahadur, and Gobind Singh), and continued to spread his teachings across the world.

The last guru, Guru Gobind Singh, named the Sikh sacred text, the Guru Granth Sahib, to be the eternal Guru that would guide the Sikhs going forward. It consists of 1,430 Anks, or pages, and 6,000 Sabads, or line compositions, all are written in poetic verse and are aligning to the rhythmic forms of ancient north Indian classical music. At the core of the Guru Granth Sahib is a yearning for a world governed by divine justice, without oppression of any kind.

The final living guru, Gobind Singh, also established the Khalsa, or order of Sikh soldier-saints. They are recognizable by "The 5 k's," their physical articles of faith: Kesh (unshorn hair and beard), Kirpan (ceremonial sword), Kangha (comb), Kara (steel bracelet) and Kachha (drawers). The Dastar, or turban, is considered a spiritual crown, a token of remembrance of the Sikh principles.

 

Subathu, Himachal Pradesh, India

This piece of art will be lost on most people of Dundee

 

A truism is a claim that is so obvious or self-evident as to be hardly worth mentioning, except as a reminder or as a rhetorical or literary device.

   

a little knowledge can go a long way

 

a lot of professionals are crackpots

 

a man can't know what it is to be a mother

 

a name means a lot just by itself

 

a positive attitude means all the difference in the world

 

a relaxed man is not necessarily a better man

 

a sense of timing is the mark of genius

 

a sincere effort is all you can ask

 

a single event can have infinitely many interpretations

 

a solid home base builds a sense of self

 

a strong sense of duty imprisons you

 

absolute submission can be a form of freedom

 

abstraction is a type of decadence

 

abuse of power comes as no surprise

 

action causes more trouble than thought

 

alienation produces eccentrics or revolutionaries

 

all things are delicately interconnected

 

ambition is just as dangerous as complacency

 

ambivalence can ruin your life

 

an elite is inevitable

 

anger or hate can be a useful motivating force

 

animalism is perfectly healthy

 

any surplus is immoral

 

anything is a legitimate area of investigation

 

artificial desires are despoiling the earth

 

at times inactivity is preferable to mindless functioning

 

at times your unconsciousness is truer than your conscious mind

 

automation is deadly

 

awful punishment awaits really bad people

 

bad intentions can yield good results

 

being alone with yourself is increasingly unpopular

 

being happy is more important than anything else

 

being judgmental is a sign of life

 

being sure of yourself means you're a fool

 

believing in rebirth is the same as admitting defeat

 

boredom makes you do crazy things

 

calm is more conductive to creativity than is anxiety

 

categorizing fear is calming

 

change is valuable when the oppressed become tyrants

 

chasing the new is dangerous to society

 

children are the most cruel of all

 

children are the hope of the future

 

class action is a nice idea with no substance

 

class structure is as artificial as plastic

 

confusing yourself is a way to stay honest

 

crime against property is relatively unimportant

 

decadence can be an end in itself

 

decency is a relative thing

 

dependence can be a meal ticket

 

description is more important than metaphor

 

deviants are sacrificed to increase group solidarity

 

disgust is the appropriate response to most situations

 

disorganization is a kind of anesthesia

 

don't place to much trust in experts

 

drama often obscures the real issues

 

dreaming while awake is a frightening contradiction

 

dying and coming back gives you considerable perspective

 

dying should be as easy as falling off a log

 

eating too much is criminal

 

elaboration is a form of pollution

 

emotional responses ar as valuable as intellectual responses

 

enjoy yourself because you can't change anything anyway

 

ensure that your life stays in flux

 

even your family can betray you

 

every achievement requires a sacrifice

 

everyone's work is equally important

 

everything that's interesting is new

 

exceptional people deserve special concessions

 

expiring for love is beautiful but stupid

 

expressing anger is necessary

 

extreme behavior has its basis in pathological psychology

 

extreme self-consciousness leads to perversion

 

faithfulness is a social not a biological law

 

fake or real indifference is a powerful personal weapon

 

fathers often use too much force

 

fear is the greatest incapacitator

 

freedom is a luxury not a necessity

 

giving free rein to your emotions is an honest way to live

 

go all out in romance and let the chips fall where they may

 

going with the flow is soothing but risky

 

good deeds eventually are rewarded

 

government is a burden on the people

 

grass roots agitation is the only hope

 

guilt and self-laceration are indulgences

 

habitual contempt doesn't reflect a finer sensibility

 

hiding your emotions is despicable

 

holding back protects your vital energies

 

humanism is obsolete

 

humor is a release

 

ideals are replaced by conventional goals at a certain age

 

if you aren't political your personal life should be exemplary

 

if you can't leave your mark give up

 

if you have many desires your life will be interesting

 

if you live simply there is nothing to worry about

 

ignoring enemies is the best way to fight

 

illness is a state of mind

 

imposing order is man's vocation for chaos is hell

 

in some instances it's better to die than to continue

 

inheritance must be abolished

 

it can be helpful to keep going no matter what

 

it is heroic to try to stop time

 

it is man's fate to outsmart himself

 

it is a gift to the world not to have babies

 

it's better to be a good person than a famous person

 

it's better to be lonely than to be with inferior people

 

it's better to be naive than jaded

 

it's better to study the living fact than to analyze history

 

it's crucial to have an active fantasy life

 

it's good to give extra money to charity

 

it's important to stay clean on all levels

 

it's just an accident that your parents are your parents

 

it's not good to hold too many absolutes

 

it's not good to operate on credit

 

it's vital to live in harmony with nature

 

just believing something can make it happen

 

keep something in reserve for emergencies

 

killing is unavoidable but nothing to be proud of

 

knowing yourself lets you understand others

 

knowledge should be advanced at all costs

 

labor is a life-destroying activity

 

lack of charisma can be fatal

 

leisure time is a gigantic smoke screen

 

listen when your body talks

 

looking back is the first sign of aging and decay

 

loving animals is a substitute activity

 

low expectations are good protection

 

manual labor can be refreshing and wholesome

 

men are not monogamous by nature

 

moderation kills the spirit

 

money creates taste

 

monomania is a prerequisite of success

 

morals are for little people

 

most people are not fit to rule themselves

 

mostly you should mind your own business

 

mothers shouldn't make too many sacrifices

 

much was decided before you were born

 

murder has its sexual side

 

myth can make reality more intelligible

 

noise can be hostile

 

nothing upsets the balance of good and evil

 

occasionally principles are more valuable than people

 

offer very little information about yourself

 

often you should act like you are sexless

 

old friends are better left in the past

 

opacity is an irresistible challenge

 

pain can be a very positive thing

 

people are boring unless they are extremists

 

people are nuts if they think they are important

 

people are responsible for what they do unless they are insane

 

people who don't work with their hands are parasites

 

people who go crazy are too sensitive

 

people won't behave if they have nothing to lose

 

physical culture is second best

 

planning for the future is escapism

 

playing it safe can cause a lot of damage in the long run

 

politics is used for personal gain

 

potential counts for nothing until it's realized

 

private property created crime

 

pursuing pleasure for the sake of pleasure will ruin you

 

push yourself to the limit as often as possible

 

raise boys and girls the same way

 

random mating is good for debunking sex myths

 

rechanneling destructive impulses is a sign of maturity

 

recluses always get weak

 

redistributing wealth is imperative

 

relativity is no boon to mankind

 

religion causes as many problems as it solves

 

remember you always have freedom of choice

 

repetition is the best way to learn

 

resolutions serve to ease our conscience

 

revolution begins with changes in the individual

 

romantic love was invented to manipulate women

 

routine is a link with the past

 

routine small excesses are worse than then the occasional debauch

 

sacrificing yourself for a bad cause is not a moral act

 

salvation can't be bought and sold

 

self-awareness can be crippling

 

self-contempt can do more harm than good

 

selfishness is the most basic motivation

 

selflessness is the highest achievement

 

separatism is the way to a new beginning

 

sex differences are here to stay

 

sin is a means of social control

 

slipping into madness is good for the sake of comparison

 

sloppy thinking gets worse over time

 

solitude is enriching

 

sometimes science advances faster than it should

 

sometimes things seem to happen of their own accord

 

spending too much time on self-improvement is antisocial

 

starvation is nature's way

 

stasis is a dream state

 

sterilization is a weapon of the rulers

 

strong emotional attachment stems from basic insecurity

 

stupid people shouldn't breed

 

survival of the fittest applies to men and animals

 

symbols are more meaningful than things themselves

 

taking a strong stand publicizes the opposite position

 

talking is used to hide one's inability to act

 

teasing people sexually can have ugly consequences

 

technology will make or break us

 

the cruelest disappointment is when you let yourself down

 

the desire to reproduce is a death wish

 

the family is living on borrowed time

 

the idea of revolution is an adolescent fantasy

 

the idea of transcendence is used to obscure oppression

 

the idiosyncratic has lost its authority

 

the most profound things are inexpressible

 

the mundane is to be cherished

 

the new is nothing but a restatement of the old

 

the only way to be pure is to stay by yourself

 

the sum of your actions determines what you are

 

the unattainable is invariable attractive

 

the world operates according to discoverable laws

 

there are too few immutable truths today

 

there's nothing except what you sense

 

there's nothing redeeming in toil

 

thinking too much can only cause problems

 

threatening someone sexually is a horrible act

 

timidity is laughable

 

to disagree presupposes moral integrity

 

to volunteer is reactionary

 

torture is barbaric

 

trading a life for a life is fair enough

 

true freedom is frightful

 

unique things must be the most valuable

 

unquestioning love demonstrates largesse of spirit

 

using force to stop force is absurd

 

violence is permissible even desirable occasionally

 

war is a purification rite

 

we must make sacrifices to maintain our quality of life

 

when something terrible happens people wake up

 

wishing things away is not effective

 

with perseverance you can discover any truth

 

words tend to be inadequate

 

worrying can help you prepare

 

you are a victim of the rules you live by

 

you are guileless in your dreams

 

you are responsible for constituting the meaning of things

 

you are the past present and future

 

you can live on through your descendants

 

you can't expect people to be something they're not

 

you can't fool others if you're fooling yourself

 

you don't know what's what until you support yourself

 

you have to hurt others to be extraordinary

 

you must be intimate with a token few

 

you must disagree with authority figures

 

you must have one grand passion

 

you must know where you stop and the world begins

 

you can understand someone of your sex only

 

you owe the world not the other way around

 

you should study as much as possible

 

your actions ae pointless if no one notices

 

your oldest fears are the worst ones

  

These flamingos had the decency to eat where the soft overcast light on them was good, and the area behind them was in deep shade. This is taken at the large Flamingo lagoon near the main entrance to the San Diego Zoo. I always love to watch these stately birds.

 

Other pictures I have taken at our world famous zoo can be seen in my creatively named San Diego Zoo album.

www.flickr.com/photos/9422878@N08/sets/72157621078764843/

 

Other pictures that I've taken of birds are in my Birds album.

 

www.flickr.com/photos/9422878@N08/sets/72157628206812625/

© John C. Mejia, All rights reserved This is a copyrighted image with all rights reserved. Do NOT use this image on any website, blog, Facebook, Tumblr or ANY other type of media without my explicit written permission. Contact me...and let's talk. I'm a reasonable person.

 

We spottted this fellow perched in a tree on the opposite side of the Wenatchee River. Luckily, he stayed around long enough for us to turn around and get our gear out. It wasn't long before he took flight just as I got my focus locked in on him! He at least had the decency to finish his dump before taking off! :-)

 

If it were a perfect world, I would gladly leave my normally unobtrusive watermark off in a corner. But sadly, it is not. And so I am forced to now place it front & center to discourage dishonest people from image theft and cropping watermarks. My apologies to image loving fans everywhere...I trust you will understand. Help fight this by reporting such abuses immediately!

Americans have called on us to marshal the forces of decency and the forces of fairness. To marshal the forces of science and the forces of hope in the great battles of our time