CRAWFORD

An excellent documentary about Crawford, Texas. Sadly, the source is Hulu.com so it is probably not viewable outside of the USA.



Documentary website
IMDb info


"Let's all be careful out there!"

OCTOBER 8TH

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 8, the 282nd day of 2008.
There are 84 days left in the year.
The Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, begins at sunset.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Oct. 8, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire erupted; fires also broke out in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and in the Michigan communities of Holland, Manistee and Port Huron.

On this date:

• In 1869, the 14th president of the United States, Franklin Pierce, died in Concord, N.H.
• In 1892, Sergei Rachmaninoff first publicly performed his piano Prelude in C-sharp Minor, Opus 3, Number 2, in Moscow.
• In 1918, Sgt. Alvin C. York almost single-handedly killed 25 German soldiers and helped capture 132 in the Argonne Forest in France.
• In 1934, Bruno Hauptmann was indicted by a grand jury in New Jersey for murder in the death of the son of Charles A. Lindbergh.
• In 1945, President Truman announced that the secret of the atomic bomb would be shared only with Britain and Canada.
• In 1956, Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in a World Series to date as the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 5, 2-0.
• In 1957, the Brooklyn Baseball Club announced it was accepting an offer to move the Dodgers from New York to Los Angeles.
• In 1970, Soviet author Aleksander Solzhenitsyn was named winner of the Nobel Prize for literature.
• In 1981, at the White House, President Reagan greeted former Presidents Carter, Ford and Nixon, who were preparing to travel to Egypt for the funeral of Anwar Sadat.
• In 1982, all labor organizations in Poland, including Solidarity, were banned.

Ten years ago:

• The House triggered an open-ended impeachment inquiry against President Clinton in a momentous 258-176 vote; 31 Democrats joined majority Republicans in opening the way for nationally televised impeachment hearings.
• Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago won the Nobel literature prize.

Five years ago:

• A day after being elected governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger said he was promised "a very smooth transition" by ousted Gov. Gray Davis and vowed to "open up the books" in dealing the state's ailing economy.
• Americans Peter Agre and Roderick MacKinnon won the Nobel Prize in chemistry; American Robert Engle and Briton Clive Granger won the Nobel Prize in economics.
• Jarome Iginla of the Calgary Flames was tabbed to become the first black captain in NHL history.

One year ago:

• British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced his country would halve its remaining troop contingent in Iraq in the spring of 2008. (Britain ended up postponing the withdrawal amid a spike in militia violence.)
• Michael Devlin was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping one of two boys he'd held captive in his suburban St. Louis apartment. (Devlin later pleaded guilty to dozens of other counts, resulting in a total of 74 life sentences.)
• Americans Mario R. Capecchi, Oliver Smithies and Briton Martin J. Evans won the 2007 Nobel Prize in medicine.
• Racing great John Henry, the thoroughbred who'd earned more than $6.5 million before retiring as a gelding, was euthanized at the Kentucky Horse Park at age 32.

Today's Birthdays:

• Entertainment reporter Rona Barrett is 72.
• Actor Paul Hogan is 69.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Fred Cash (The Impressions) is 68.
• Rev. Jesse Jackson is 67.
• Comedian Chevy Chase is 65.
• Author R.L. Stine is 65. Country singer Susan Raye is 64.
• TV personality Sarah Purcell is 60.
• Actress Sigourney Weaver is 59.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Robert "Kool" Bell (Kool & the Gang) is 58.
• Producer-director Edward Zwick is 56.
• Country singer-musician Ricky Lee Phelps is 55.
• Actor Michael Dudikoff is 54.
• Comedian Darrell Hammond is 53.
• Actress Stephanie Zimbalist is 52.
• Rock musician Mitch Marine is 47.
• Rock singer Steve Perry (Cherry Poppin' Daddies) is 45.
• Actor Ian Hart is 44.
• Gospel/rhythm-and-blues singer CeCe Winans is 44.
• Rock musician C.J. Ramone (The Ramones) is 43.
• Singer-producer Teddy Riley is 42.
• Actress Emily Procter is 40.
• Actor-screenwriter Matt Damon is 38.
• Actress Kristanna Loken is 29.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Byron Reeder (Mista) is 29.
• Actor Nick Cannon is 28. Actor Max Crumm is 23.
• Actor Angus T. Jones is 15.

Thought for Today:

"Politics are usually the executive expression of human immaturity."
Vera Brittain, British author (1893-1970).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 8-282

"Let's all be careful out there!"

OCTOBER 7TH

Today is Tuesday, Oct. 7, the 281st day of 2008.
There are 85 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• On Oct. 7, 1777, the second Battle of Saratoga began during the American Revolution. (British forces under Gen. John Burgoyne surrendered 10 days later.)

On this date:

• In 1571, allied Christian forces defeated an Ottoman fleet in the naval Battle of Lepanto.
• In 1858, the fifth debate between Illinois senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas took place in Galesburg.
• In 1868, Cornell University was inaugurated in Ithaca, N.Y.
• In 1916, in the most lopsided victory in college football history, Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland University 222-0 in Atlanta.
• In 1949, the Republic of East Germany was formed.
• In 1954, Marian Anderson became the first black singer hired by the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York.
• In 1960, Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy and Republican opponent Richard M. Nixon held their second televised debate, in Washington, D.C.
• In 1979, Pope John Paul II concluded his weeklong tour of the United States with a Mass on the Washington Mall.
• In 1985, Palestinian gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean. (The hijackers, who killed an elderly Jewish American tourist, surrendered two days after taking the ship.)
• In 1991, University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill publicly accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of making sexually inappropriate comments when she worked for him; Thomas denied Hill's allegations.

Ten years ago:

• Matthew Shepard, a gay college student at the University of Wyoming, was beaten, robbed and left tied to a wooden fence post outside of Laramie; he died five days later. (Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney are serving life sentences for Shepard's murder.)
• The Justice Department sued Visa and MasterCard, the nation's largest credit card networks, on grounds they were restraining competition and limiting consumers' choices. (A judge later ruled that the Visa and MasterCard associations had to allow their member banks to issue other credit cards.)

Five years ago:

• California voters recalled Gov. Gray Davis and elected Arnold Schwarzenegger their new governor.
• Turkey's parliament voted overwhelmingly to allow Turkish troops to be sent to Iraq.
• Ten Southeast Asian nations signed an accord establishing a Europe-like economic community by 2020.
• American scientists Alexei Abrikosov and Anthony Leggett and Russian Vitaly Ginzburg won the Nobel Prize in physics for their work in how matter can behave at extremely low temperatures.

One year ago:

• Tyler Peterson, a 20-year-old sheriff's deputy, went on a shooting rampage in Crandon, Wis., killing six people, including his ex-girlfriend, before taking his own life as police closed in.
• Nine skydivers and a pilot were killed when their Cessna Caravan 208 crashed in Washington's Cascade Range.
• In a race run in scorching heat that left one man dead, Kenya's Patrick Ivuti won the Chicago Marathon by a fraction of a second; an additional 250 runners were taken to hospitals because of heat-related ailments.

Today's Birthdays:

• Singer Al Martino is 81.
• Retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu is 77.
• Comedian Joy Behar (TV: "The View") is 66.
• Former National Security Council aide Oliver North is 65.
• Rock musician Kevin Godley (10cc) is 63.
• Actress Jill Larson (TV: "All My Children") is 61.
• Country singer Kieran Kane is 59.
• Singer John Mellencamp is 57.
• Rock musician Ricky Phillips is 57.
• Actress Mary Badham is 56.
• Actress Christopher Norris is 55.
• Rock musician Tico Torres (Bon Jovi) is 55.
• Cellist Yo-Yo Ma is 53.
• Gospel singer Michael W. Smith is 51.
• Actor Dylan Baker is 50.
• Recording executive and TV personality Simon Cowell ("American Idol") is 49.
• Rock musician Charlie Marinkovich (Iron Butterfly) is 49.
• Country singer Dale Watson is 46.
• Pop singer Ann Curless (Expose) is 45.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Toni Braxton is 41.
• Rock singer-musician Thom Yorke (Radiohead) is 40.
• Rock musician-dancer Leeroy Thornhill is 39.
• Actress Nicole Ari Parker is 38.
• Rock singer-musician Damian Kulash is 33.
• Singer Taylor Hicks ("American Idol") is 32.
• Actor Omar Benson Miller is 30.

Thought for Today:

"Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries."
James Michener, American novelist (1907-1997).

"Let's all be careful out there!"

DAILY CHUCKLE 8-281

REDNECK LOVE POEM..........


SUSIE LEE DONE FELL IN LOVE, SHE PLANNED TO MARRY JOE.
SHE WAS SO HAPPY 'BOUT IT ALL, SHE TOLD HER PAPPY SO.

PAPPY TOLD HER, SUSIE GAL, YOU'LL HAVE TO FIND ANOTHER.
I'D JUST AS SOON YO' MA DON'T KNOW. BUT JOE IS YO' HALF BROTHER.

SO SUSIE PUT ASIDE HER JOE AND PLANNED TO MARRY WILL.
BUT AFTER TELLING PAPPY THIS, HE SAID, THERE'S TROUBLE STILL.

YOU CAN'T MARRY WILL, MY GAL, AND PLEASE DON'T TELL YO' MOTHER.
BUT WILL AND JOE, AND SEVERAL MO' I KNOW IS YO' HALF BROTHERS.

BUT MAMA KNEW AND SAID, MY CHILD, JUST DO WHAT MAKES YO' HAPPY.
MARRY WILL OR MARRY JOE; YOU AIN'T NO KIN TO PAPPY!!)




















"Let's all be careful out there!"