#it was from 1975 and the professor was a woman married to a man

[maddie-grove]

I sincerely do not judge people for only reading one or two genres for pleasure. Looking for books you like outside of a familiar genre actually takes some skill, and lots of people have limits on their time/energy that make setting aside any time for reading an accomplishment. However, if you do only read one or two genres, don't act like you know what other genres are like or pretend that you don't read them because they're worthless! It's much better to say "reading literary fiction isn't high on my priority list" than to say "it's all about English professors cheating on their wives."

[leftistfeminista]

Is it wrong for leftist women to celebrate the death of a 100 year old man?

These are just some of the horrors we leftist women endured as a result of Henry Kissinger's coup in Chile-

Three passages from Robinson Rojas Sandford, The Murder of Allende and the End of the Chilean Way of Socialism, Translated from the Spanish by Andrée Conrad, New York (Harper and Row) 1975, 1976:

 Prats, pp.175-176.

 The Tortures, pp.202-204.

The Women, pp.206-210.  

The military torture teams, graduates of the Americas School in the Canal Zone, have revealed a degree of human bestiality with Chilean women that puts them way ahead of their American trainers.9

A woman professor at the East Santiago campus of the University of Chile, married, with two children, was detained for forty days in the National Stadium. She wrote me this about the "female prisoners of war":

They were obliged to remain all day long face down with their hands on their necks and their legs spread. . . . There were lines of them kneeling or standing against the walls, and at the slightest movement they were struck or kicked - and, in several cases I saw, shot. In rooms fifteen by eighteen feet there were a hundred women. Food came only once a day, at 4 or 5 P.M. There were mainly two groups of women: workers and university professors. Girls and women were harassed, obliged to disrobe, manhandled, and insulted as a preamble to the interrogations. The academics among us had been taken out of our classrooms at gunpoint. One group of schoolteachers had a typically sad experience: at the investigatory commission one of them had her hair cropped off . . then at Los Cerros de Chena, the eyes were always blindfolded. To go to the bathroom, they had to be accompanied by guards who took the opportunity to manhandle and beat them. They were interrogated naked.

[millingroundireland]

Nutley, Cincinnati, and beyond [Part 5]

continued from part 4

Sadly, Bob would die, at age 56, on May 2, 1981, at Holmes Hospital from a brain tumor, malignant glioblastoma. The “Robert B. Mills Memorial Graduate Award,” a scholarship award, would be named in his honor. Left in his immediate family were his wife F.L., two children, along with his sisters Carol (in Cincinnati) and Helen (in Huntington Woods, Michigan). [18] He is buried at Spring Grove Cemetery alongside RBM I, RBM II, Hattie, and Stanley. F.L would die 15 years later on December 31, 1996 at Glen Meadows Retirement Community. Not surprisingly, her tobacco smoking and long-standing alcoholism for years was a major factor in her death. She donated her body to science.

It is best to finish the chapter off with a focus on Bob’s siblings, Helen and Carol. Helen would, in 1950, begin education at New York City’s Brooklyn College. Sometime before 1955 she would marry Alexander “Alex” Christopher Efthim. Alex’s family was born in Albania. [19] Like Helen, Alex was also politically active and aware, with both going to Communist Party meetings. He would write a Masters Thesis titled “Public relations in the Department of Welfare, New York City” at Columbia University, getting a Masters in Public Law in 1940 after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts at Washington University on June 7, 1938. He served in the military from August 21, 1943 to 1946, specifically in the Pacific Theater and become a decorated Army Air Force Captain. On June 29, 1946, Alex would lead a class on organizing vets for political action, described as a “one-man lobby” against crippling OPA (Office of Price Administration). Later that year he would criticize Representative Ploeser in St. Louis, a stout conservative who lost re-election in 1948, likely in part because of Alex’s Fight Inflation Committee. Later, on August 5, 1968, he would publish an article in The Nation titled “”We Care” in Kansas: The Non-Professionals Revolt.” By January 1976 he would be an assistant professor at Wayne State University in school of social work. He was introducing social work to nontraditional settings such as legislator's offices and family physician practices, and for his “advocacy” in the field of teaching he was denied tenure in 1975, although the school of social work fought for him on his behalf. He died on October 13, 1990 in Huntington Woods, Oakland, Michigan.

Helen and Alex's wedding. Alex's brother named Chris is on the right of the picture, near Carol. Alex is to the left of Helen in the middle of the picture). The woman on the right of the picture is Victoria. The little girl may be named Catherine. The name of the boy is not known.

In 1955, Helen and Alex’s child would be born. She would live in the Bronx in a non-discreet apartment building before the family moved to White Plains, New York then Michigan. Later in her life she would live in New Jersey. As for Helen, she completed her undergraduate with a bachelor’s degree at Oakland University in 1974. In 1982 published a book titled Creative Effective Schools, written with Stephen Miller, Wilbur B. Brookover, and Lawrence W. Lezotte. Following Alex's death in October 1990, Helen no longer felt she had a book in her and retired, according to a relative. On January 8, 2009, Helen died in Flemington, New Jersey.

© 2018-2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

This is reprinted from my family history of the Mills/Packard family. This tells a shortened version of the Bob Mills story in World War II sent out to relatives on June 17, 2018. Some other changes have been made to make a smoother text. This was originally published on the WordPress version of this blog in November 2018, but has been broken apart info various parts for this blog.

continued in part 6

Notes

[18] Certificate of Death of RBM III, May 2, 1981, Ohio Department of Health, Certificate of Death, Number 13101; “Robert Mills dies, service set Friday,” The University of Cincinnati news, May 8, 1981, page not known; Cincinnati Inquirer, May 5, 1981. He was also an “inveterate [avid] gardener,” planting at two greenhouses and a Japanese Garden which overlook Lunken Airport, where the fire truck his father had used was broke up and put under the ground. He still had a drives license when he died. He was treated at a University of Cincinnati medical center. He also has a probate record available. Other sources  include: The Cincinnati Inquirer, Jan. 7, 1997, p. 6; Certificate of Death of F.L. Mills, Dec. 31, 1996, Maryland Division of Vital Records, Certificate of Death, issued Jan. 30, 1997. She would die of esophageal squamous cell cakcinoma and also had type 2 diabetes.

[19] His father was named Christo E. Efthim (1886-1962), and mother named Olga Peppo (1897-1959). He would have three siblings: Elthine (b. 1915), Victoria Christ (1922-2002), and Christopher. Other sources include: the Columbia University website, page 4 of the announcement of the commencement of Washington University. He graduated Central High School in St. Louis sometime before 1938, “Students at Political Action Laud Truman's Veto,” Reading Eagle, June 29, 1946; “Veteran berates Congressman,” Prescott Evening Courier, July 9, 1946. Walter C. Ploeser, a Republican, lost re-election in 1948 and later served on the board of the Salvation Army. For background, see the National Archive on the Office of Price Administration and the text of Truman's veto on June 29, 1946. Also see:  Alex Efthim, “Serving the U.S. Work Force: A New Constituency for Schools of Social Work,” Journal of Education for Social Work, Vol. 12, no. 3, fall 1976, p. 29-46; Wayne University, “Alumni Relations: Alumni Giving Council,” accessed July 17, 2017. As a result, the Planning Network of the Planners for Equal Opportunity was born.

[kayla1993-world]

Olivia Newton-John dead: ‘Grease’ star dies at 73

Newton-John, the Grease actor and Grammy-winning singer, died on Monday morning, according to a statement posted on her official Facebook page. She was 73 years old at the time. Newton-John "passed away peacefully at her Ranch in Southern California" on Monday morning, "surrounded by family and friends," according to the statement.

In 1992, the singer and actor was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent chemotherapy and a partial mastectomy. Cancer was discovered in her shoulder in 2013. Newton-John revealed in September 2018 that her cancer had returned the previous year and had spread to her lower back.

Instead of flowers, the statement announcing her death emphasized her advocacy work for cancer research and asked fans to donate to the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund, which is dedicated to researching plant medicine and cancer.

Newton-John had a string of number-one singles in the 1970s and 1980s, including "You're the One That I Want," the catchy duet she sang with John Travolta in the 1978 musical sensation Grease.

Her appearance with Kelly in 1980s Xanadu catapulted the Australian native into superstardom, as did her performance of the title track, which also topped the charts.

Her 1981 smash hit "Physical" solidified her superstardom, spending 10 weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, while its risque lyrics and fitness-themed music video reinvented her image for the remainder of the 1980s.

From 1973 to 1983, Newton-John had 14 top ten singles in the United States and won four Grammy Awards. Throughout her career, she sold over 100 million records. Newton-John was the daughter of Max Bron and German literature professor Brin Newton-John.

She had early ambitions of becoming a veterinarian, but by high school, she was winning singing contests, touring army bases and clubs, and recording her first single, Till You Say You'll Be Mine.'' In 1971, she covered Bob Dylan's If Not for You',' launching a close collaboration with an Australian friend, John Farrar, who produced the song and later wrote You're the One That I Want, ''Magic'' and several other hits for her.

She had grown up listening to country music, particularly the records of Tennessee'' Ernie Ford, but her early success did not impress critics or some fellow musicians. In a Village Voice review, she was compared to a geisha who makes her voice smaller than it is to please men.''

But Newton-John had a showbiz fan who joined her to form one of the most memorable film teams. Travolta starred in the stage version of Grease'' and thought Newton-John would be the ultimate Sandy, the nice girl who gets tough in the final act and gets her man, for the planned film.

Until that pivotal moment, Newton-John had preferred mild pop-country songs such as Please Mr. Please, Have You Never Been Mellow and soft-breathing ballads like I Honestly Love You, which won Grammys for best female pop vocal and record of the year in 1975.

After Physical, she had a few hits, but her career declined, and Newton-John became more likely to make headlines due to her personal life. Her father died in 1992, while she was preparing for a concert tour, and she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Her marriage to actor Matt Lattanzi, with whom she had a daughter, actress-singer Chloe Lattanzi, ended in 1995 and a long-distance relationship with cameraman Patrick McDermott ended mysteriously.

Stronger Than Before; a holiday collaboration with Travolta, This Christmas, and the autobiographical Gaia: One Woman's Journey, inspired by her battle with cancer and by the loss of her father, were among Newton-John's recent albums.

In 2008, Newton-John married John Easterling, founder of the Amazon Herb Company. She was a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme and a national spokeswoman for the Children's Health Environmental Coalition, among other things.

Her husband; daughter Chloe Lattanzi; sister Sarah Newton-John; brother Toby Newton-John; and several nieces and nephews survive her. Travolta was among the co-stars, collaborators, and other celebrities who paid tribute to Newton-John following her death announcement on Monday.

[majingojira]

Spider-Man Real-Time Aging Timeline

I’ve been asked to get on my crazy again with this, this time for Spider-Man. Well, here goes and boy, this is about to get WEIRD! A lot of this IS based on Spider-Man: Life Story, so if you are wondering about something, refer to that. 

Because there’s a LOT of Spider-Man events out there, I couldn’t include them all without going totally nuts.  If you have a question about them, ask!   Though beware, “The writers made that up” is a possible explanation.  1946 - Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson, Jessica Drew, Luke Cage, “Flash” Thompson, and Gwen Stacy born.  1947 - Peter’s Parents die under somewhat mysterious circumstances. His Aunt May and Uncle Ben Parker take him in. 

1950 - Julia Carpenter born.  1962 - Peter Parker, 16 years old, invents a quick-drying temporary adhesive with properties similar to spider silk as an entry in a science fair (with hopes of catching someone’s eye to sell the invention to in order to aid his aunt and uncle).  Unfortunately, one of the other entries was a might volatile and explodes.  Peter is caught in the blast radius and injured.  Worse, while on the ground an escaped Tarantula bites his hand in its panic.  Peter recovers, but the incident was quite traumatic, and he associated everything that followed with that spider. 

When he recovers, he finds himself stronger, faster, and tougher than he was before, and more ‘aware’ of his surroundings.  Worse, he was ‘seeing’ things before they happened.  He doesn’t know what to do with these abilities at first but is inspired by seeing the masked wrestler El Santo perform on TV. He hits on the idea of fighting for money with a masked identity.  It goes rather well, but we know how this song and dance goes by now. 

After his, he invents gloves and boots to better help him climb across surfaces, as well as web-shooters for ranged entrapment.  He soon figured out web-swinging from there. And thus, Spider-Man was born!    But what did cause his powers to awaken?   It goes back a few hundred years. One of the greatest swordsmen of all time was a man named Zatoichi.  Upon learning of this man, one of the greatest criminal masterminds of all time (Fu Manchu) attempted to re-create this man’s skills.  This eventually led to the creation of the Nanjin, a sect of Warrior Monks who ritually blinded themselves to “See With the Heart”.  Over time, The Devil Doctor did his best to be eugenic about the subject, but random mutation is going to random. Peter Parker his the jackpot with his genes.  Upon suffering a horrendous injury, an epigenetic response kicked in and he became as they were--more in fact with an enhanced musculature and reaction time on top of it.   How strong is he?  Well, starting out, he was a very athletic human, far more so for his size and weight.  After fighting and working out for a few years, he could give some species of vampire a go without much problem.  Especially with his “spider-sense”.  

And yes, Daredevil is a trained Nanjin.  Obviously. 

Also, this year, Jessica Drew is the only survivor of a car crash into a chemical truck that kills her family.  With no one to watch her, she is kidnapped and experimented on by HYDRA.  1962-1966 - Many of Spider-Man’s classic rogues appear in this timeframe. Notable oddities about them based on what people assume are as follows: Vulture’s ‘flight harness’ was based on the old Doc Savage designed Rocket Pack, most famously employed by the Rocketeer (Cliff Seacord) back in the Late 30s/Early 40s; Otto Octavius is a Cthulhu Cultist; The Sandman is a person who absorbed a juvenile Founder/Changeling and gained some semblance of their shapeshifting abilities; The Lizard is likely tied to the experiments which created the “Alligator Man” of Bayou Landing (The Alligator People); Electro is one of several known “Electrical Mutants” -- people who were born with an electro-kinetic ability.  

1964 - Norman Osborn becomes the Green Goblin. 

1965 - Peter Parker meets Mary Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy. 

1966 - Flash Thompson goes to Vietnam.  

1969 - The death of George Stacy, Gwen Stacy’s Father. 

1972 - Giant-Size Spider-Man #2 - Spider-Man and Shang-Chi team up against Shang’s Father, Fu Manchu. 

Peter Parker marries Gwen Stacy. 1973 - Giant-Size Spide-Man #1 - Spider-Man tangles with (a) Dracula.

1974 - Giant-Size Spider-Man #3 - Spider-Man helps resolve a case started by Doc Savage in 1934.  

Flash Thompson comes back from Vietnam with a wife, Sha-Shan Nguyen-Thompson, but without his legs. 

Jessica Drew escapes Hydra’s indoctrination and tries to make headway as a hero on her own as “Spider-Woman”.  It does not go well. 

1975 - Marvel Team-Up #36-37 - Spider-Man meets Frankenstein’s Monster.  Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man - Spider-Man is tricked into fighting the legendary Superman by the machinations of Otto Octavius and Lex Luthor.  They eventually team up and stop the malcontents.  1976 - Jessica Drew decides to re-invent herself as the heroine “Jewel” since her powers really have very little to do with Spiders.  1977 - Professor Miles Warren’s plan of making Gwen Stacy his own via “cloning” is exposed by the ‘new’ Green Goblin, Harry Osborn.  Unfortunately, tat technology is over a decade away, and his “Clone” is more “Human Meat Puppet” and rather horrifying.  In the conflagration/confrontation, he and Gwen Stacy are killed.  Harry Osborn disappears for a time... Mary Jane Watson-Osborn and Peter Parker comfort each other over their mutual losses. 

Jessica Drew finds herself under the thrall of a mind-mage known as “The Purple Man.”  The thrall is eventually broken, but though she manages to recover, it leaves scars. 

1978 - Marvel Team-Up #79 - Thanks to a mystical malady, Spider-Man battles Kulan Gath, and things could have ended up badly for him, if not for the revelation that Mary-Jane Watson was a descendant of Red Sonja of Hyrkania.  Touching an artifact allowed the She-Devil to manifest in the present and aid Spider-Man in taking down her ancient foe. 

Spider-Man first encounters the blind seer Madame Web. 

Birth of Samuel Thompson to Flash and Sha-Shan Thompson.

Jessica Drew takes up two new identities, Knightress (for about 5 minutes) and Jessica Jones to distance herself from what happened. 

1980 - Marvel Treasury Edition #28 - Spider-Man manages to accidentally thwart the plans of Doctor Doom, to turn the monster known as Parasite into a massive energy storage device after it drained the life force from the Hulk, Superman, and Wonder Woman.  

Secret War - Spider-Man is one of the many people invited to this decade’s Mortal Kombat tournament.  Unfortunately for Shao Khan, so is Superman (Clark Kent), and he utterly wrecks the event, making the whole thing a wash, forcing Shao Khan to wait another decade to continue his win streak.  The monstrous being known as “Venom” follows Spider-Man from Outworld.  One of the people taken in by this is a survivor of “The Shop”, Julia Carpenter.  Taking a cue from Spider-Man, she dubs herself Spider-Woman (II).  

Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson marry. 

Mattie Franklin born. 

1981 -  Marvel Team-Up #111-112 - Spider-Man has a time-traveling adventure featuring King Kull, battling against Valusian Serpent-Men.   Marvel Team-Up Annual #5 - Spider-Man has more adventures with the Serpent-Men and their ancient enemies, Kull and Conan. 

1982 - The monster  “Venom” reveals himself. Its first host is Eddie Brock. 

May “Mayday” Parker is born.

1983 - The Venom creature spawns, creating the horror known as Carnage. It goes on to spawn more Symbiotes.  Jessica Jones has a child with Luke Cage (Daniel Cage) and later marries him.  1984 - Spider-Man and Batman: Disordered Minds - Spider-Man and Batman (III) team-up. 

Kraven’s Last Hunt occurs.

Cindy Moon, the grandaughter of Flash Thompson, born.  

1985 - Batman/Spider-Man - Batman and Spider-Man team up once again. 

1988 - Anya Corazon born. 

1990 - Julia Carpenter retires as Spider-Woman, Madame Web begins recruiting her as a replacement for herself. 

1991 - Richard Wentworth jr., the descendant of the pulp-era anti-hero known as The Spider takes to the streets, and takes umbrage with the ‘pretender’ that is Peter Parker. He and Peter clash several times over the next few years, and the comic industry uses the presence of a ‘second Spider” to inflate the “Clone Saga” to ridiculous levels. 

Thanks to developments from InGen being stolen when the company was liquidated in 1990, Efforts to Clone Spider-Man go forward under multiple groups. The results are nicknamed “Kaine” but artificial again technology doesn’t exist, so it wouldn’t bear fruit for many years. 

1993 - May Parker Sr. passes away. 

1995 - Richard Wentworth jr. goes to more volatile places around the world to sate his bloodlust. 

Miles Morales born. 

1996 - Gwen Stacy (II), niece of Gwen Stacy (via Gabriel Stacy) is born. 

Mattie Franklin, a half-demon with arachnid affinities decided to become “Spider-Woman”.  Her desire to prove herself causes quite a few problems. 

1998 - Mayday Parker has her first outing as Spider-Girl under her parent's noses.  After a few of these outings, she catches Mattie Franklin’s attention, who challenges her to a “Title Fight.”  Mattie loses and chooses to go by “The Scarlet Spider” for a time afterward. 

Benjamin Parker is born to Peter and Mary Jane Parker. 

Cindy Moon is identified by the Nanjin and is kidnapped for ‘training’ by them.  She ends up with a similar condition to Peter Parker. 

2000 - Peter Parker retires from being Spider-Man and working Biotech to become a teacher at his old High School. Mayday Parker takes over properly as Spider-Girl. 

2003 - Anya Corazon is kidnapped by the tattered remains of the organization known as Shocker and partly transformed into a quasi-magical cyborg super-soldier by them. She is rescued before she could be brainwashed by Kamen Rider (Kamen Rider Spirits).  She takes her new ‘gift’ and becomes known as “Arana”, though people often call her “The Other Spider-Girl” to both her and Mayday’s annoyance. 

2004 - Mattie Franklin dies battling drug-runners. 

2005 - Samuel Thompson becomes bonded to the “Venom” Symbiot (or a facsimile thereof) by the U.S. Government.  Dubbed “Agent Venom” he works with them as he furthers his military career.

Julia Carpenter takes over formally as Madame Web on the original’s passing. 

2009 - Miles Morales is bitten by a spider carrying an attempt to create a retroviral payload to make Nanjin Adepts.  He nearly dies from the venom, but it works -- with an added perk or two. 

2011 - Miles Morales becomes Spider-Man with Peter and May’s blessings. 

Kaine Parker reveals his existence to Peter, but more out of obligation, as he’d rather be left alone. He is not, thanks to mystical shenanigans.  Even moving to Huston doesn’t help in that regard.  He dubs himself “The Scarlet Spider”.  

2012 - Cindy Moon escapes the Nanjin order and goes to “Spider-Man” to help.  Mayday Parker does her best to get her settled after over a decade in isolation.

2013 - The “Ghost Spider” appears, and is eventually revealed to be Gwen Stacy (II), niece and namesake of the Gwen Stacy Peter knew.   She is ‘accepted’ by the family, but has been through quite a lot and is often chastised for making bad decisions. 

2018 - Miles Morales has his mind swapped with that of the extremely aged Otto Octavius via a dark ritual.  

2019 - Miles Morales is freed of Otto’s domination of his mind. However, the Grand-Nephew of Otto Octavius (name currently unknown) begins causing him problems, dubbing himself the “Superior Spider-Man.”

[southeastasianists]

In 1954, the war was waging in the Indochina Region. Vietnam and Laos were at war for independence against the French, while in Cambodia, an uprising against the Royals was imminent. Eventually, these countries would fall under communism in 1975. Threatened by the ‘domino effect’ whereby if one country fell under communist influence or control, its neighboring countries would soon follow,  Thailand joined the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) on September 8, 1954 along with the United States, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, and Pakistan.

The first batch of American Forces was sent from Clark Airfield in the Philippines arrived in Thailand on April 20, 1961. It was called Operation Bell Tone, a code name for the first F-100 deployment to Thailand.

The US installations were in Don Muang Royal Thai Air Force Base; Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base, Nakhon Ratchasima; Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Navy; Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base; U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield ;Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Ubonratchatani and at the Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base at Udornthani. Except for Takhli, U-Tapao, and Don Muang, all were located in the Northeast Region (Isaan) of Thailand.

More than 50,000 US servicemen were stationed in Thailand. American soldiers or GIs on R&R (Rest and Recreation) leave from Vietnam also traveled in and out of Thailand regularly.  It brought an economic boom to the hotel and entertainment industry, adding $111 million to the economy during that period.

When the Vietnam War ended in April 1975, the government ordered the US military personnel out of Thailand, not later than 1976. The GIs left behind women; their companions and wives during their stay. But they also left a legacy that has become the ‘forgotten secret’ – the luuk khreung or Thai-Amerasians. Fifty-seven years later, this secret is coming out in the open, hoping to find recognition from the United States.

Luuk Khreung

Luuk khreung means children with Thai elite lineage, usually a paternal connection. But Thailand’s involvement in the Vietnam War gave birth to a negative connotation – children of   ‘prostitutes’. The term Amerasian is used for mixed-race children born out of the US military presence in Asian nations which started after World War 2. 1

In 2004, the Pearl S. Buck Foundation estimated around 5,000-8,000 Thai-Amerasians. Some of them were able to immigrate to the United States under the 1982 Amerasian Immigration Act. An undetermined numbers are still left in Thailand; invisible and discriminated. 2

Tanong Pirunproi was born on November 27, 1962. His father was probably among the first batch of Operation Bell Tone. He knows nothing about his father, except that his mother and GI father met in Sattahip, Chonburi. His mother eventually married a Swiss national.

Kalwin Anne Pungprasert 3 may have been Thai all her life, but not her features. She has a fair skin, blonde hair, and an aquiline nose. She would have been registered as Kalwin Anne Lipford, daughter of Staff Sergeant Wayne E. Lipford of Company L Rangers 75TH Infantry 101st Airborne Division stationed in Vietnam, and Kamnuan Pungprasert of Thailand, a maid at U-tapao Air Force Base, Rayong Province. Born in Sattahip, Chonburi, her Thai identity card shows her birth date as May 21, 1971. Based on the exchange of letters between her parents and a photo, she could have been born in late 1969 or early 1970.

Thappani Singkhamol was born on September 9, 1970 to an African-American father who left when she was born. Her mother was from Chiang Mai. She found work around the Royal Airbase in Nakhon Ratchasima. When she was young, her mother called her Andy Whait.

Born on October 28, 1975, in Ubon Ratchatani, Meaghan Ura Butsringh Leshana was given up for adoption. She was adopted by an Australian couple and was taken to Australia. Since she has a Thai name, her biological mother, Janta Butsringh was located after 43 years. Janta mentioned Max(w)ell I. Jonson, an airman that could be Meaghan’s father.

To assimilate in the Thai society, the Amerasians were given Thai names. The fathers were either a grandfather, an uncle or a foster father. Their birthdays were also changed. With Thai names they were able to have access to government benefits and services like education and citizenship.

Thai Woman Identity

In the 1960s, Sayan Sanya, a famous country music singer popularized the song Mae Pla Ra (Pickled Fish girl) deriding an Isaan woman who wants to have a GI boyfriend. A Thai man who loves her, warns that the GI will dump her.

Phla ra is a fermented fish sauce associated with the northeastern food culture. Almost everything is seasoned with this. Saowanee Alexander, 4 a Thai professor of Sociolinguistics at Ubon Ratchatani University, claimed the song reinforces the negative stereotype of Isaan women during the war.

In Thai culture, a woman is defined as virtuous, graceful, and conservative in her sexuality and morality, and responsible for household duties. Despite using their sexuality and lowering their morality, the women were duty-bound to provide for their families. Women who could not find work in their provinces look for any jobs that could elsewhere. They found jobs around the bases.

In some cases, GIs, like Kalwin’s father wanted to take them to the United States. However, the family refused to give details about Kalwin and her mother. The relatives claimed that she died along with her mother.

The United States is another world where culture is beyond the understanding of the family living in the villages. Although Thai society accepts aspects of foreign culture, it is only to some extent, as long as this does not compromise their own culture and religion.

DNA – The Only Hope?

For the Amerasians left behind, a DNA test is their only hope of finding their GI fathers. DNA kits are available online, and samples are sent back to the United States and the results are uploaded on sites such as Ancestry.com. Immediate relatives can be found based on the same DNA.  GEDCOM is also a genealogical software developed by the Church of the Latter-Day Saints, allows all DNA companies to have their DNA results uploaded. This will increase the possibilities of finding more family members.

Kalwin found her family through the DNA. Although her father died, her half-sibling is processing her documents towards obtaining US citizenship. Meanwhile, many others are still waiting for the results of their DNA testings. It will take time before many Amerasians find the identities of their fathers. The results will not automatically make them US citizens, nor provide them with their biological fathers, but the knowledge could underline their lineage and perhaps offer the cornerstone that might have been absent for much of their lives.

Eunice Barbara C Novio Eunice Barbara C Novio is from the Philippines and presently resides in Thailand where she teaches English at Vongchavalitkul University in Nakhon Ratchasima and is adjunct lecturer at Philippine Christian University-St. Robert’s Group of Companies. She is a graduate of the University of the Philippines Diliman, with an MA in Women and Development through a Women Leadership Scholarship given by the Channel Foundation (Seattle). She has written various research and scholarly articles about women, EFL and migration. She is also a correspondent of the Inquirer.net US Bureau, a stringer for Bangkok Post and contributing columnist at the Asia Times.

Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia, 26, Trendsetters, January 2020

Also from Eunice Barbara C Novio: “English Skills Pave Ways for Filipinos in Thailand“

Notes:

heng, E. (2014). Pearl S. Buck’s “American Children”: US Democracy, Adoption of the Amerasian Child, and the Occupation of Japan in The Hidden Flower. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies,35(1), 181-210. doi:10.5250/fronjwomestud.35.1.0181 ↩

Kutschera, P.C. (2013). Military Pan Amerasians and 21st century implications for diasporic and global studies. Asia Journal of Global Studies. 6(1). Retrieved March 12, 2019, from http://www.aags.org/journal/ajgs-2014-volume-6-issue-1-issn-1884-0264 ↩

Novio, E. B. (3 July 2019). Ex-GI uses DNA tests to help Amerasians find their fathers.Inquirer.Net. Retrieved from https://usa.inquirer.net/33547/ex-gi-uses-dna-tests-to-help-amerasians-find-their-fathers ↩

Novio, E. B. (3 July 2019). Ex-GI uses DNA tests to help Amerasians find their fathers.Inquirer.Net. Retrieved from https://usa.inquirer.net/33547/ex-gi-uses-dna-tests-to-help-amerasians-find-their-fathers ↩

[hello-robin-goodfellow]

So, if there it is a Shakespeare play that influences a lot of the brasilian fiction, is the Taming of the Shrew. Why do i say that?

Because it was a made a brasilian telenovela (soap opera) three times. All the three versions transported the story to the brasilian state of São Paulo, in the 1920s, transforming Petruchio into a farmer that originally wants to marry Katherine to pay the debts and save his farm, but eventually falls in love with her for real, and Katherine is turned into an actual first wave feminist (quite straw/carichatured, if you ask me, but considering from wich play they drew inspiration, i’m not surprised).

The first version, released by the extinct channel TV Excelsior in 1965, was called The Indomitable. Is now considered lost.

The second version, released by the also extinct channel TV Tupi in 1975, was called The Big Macho. I finded some scenes on Youtube. I don’t if there’s full chapters preserved, or if there’s only those scenes.

And, finally, in the year 2000, was released the version that i watched when i was a child, called The Gillyflower and The Rose (in reference to a popular kids song from my country). On that last version, they also included a Cyrano of Bergerac inspired subplot, where a professor of literature called Edmundo (Edmond) writes poems for the main heroine’s sister, Bianca, and another guy called Heitor (Héctor) passes them as his own.

That last one, the one i actually watched, gave me some fun memories, having tone down a bit the ‘abuse of a woman by her husband as comedy’ aspect of the original play. It was one of my introductions to fiction influenced by Shakespeare, alongside The Lion King. But i can’t deny that the clichéd portraial of a feminist woman as a shrew who needs to “relax and meet the right man to tame her strong will” keeps bothering as i grow more critical of the media i consume, and i hope that no more media repeat this kind of writing a fourth time. Please. I’m a fan of the Bard, but i still can recognize that he wasn’t perfect.

[hellorickturner-blog]

Daniel Carpenter Taking Things to a New Level

Daniel Carpenter is far from your average senior. He doesn’t take life slow or easy, in fact when most people his age begin to become less active, Daniel Carpenter speeds his life up. So what makes this 64 year old, retired army captain, licensed private investigator, and former professor with a PH.D. in Drama do for fun? The answer may surprise you. Currently, Carpenter is learning MMA and pursuing a career in Rap! Rap Music to be precise and like everything Daniel had ever applied himself to he’s giving it 110%.

Carpenter was born on November 5th 1955 in the back of a farm truck on route 315 in Simsbury, Connecticut (a suburb of Hartford) on the way to the hospital, in a thunderstorm. Already an unusual start to this extraordinary man’s life, at the age of five, he was already showing incredible abilities. Carpenter wrote and performed a cello concerto featured in a local town’s christmas pageant. He was also known to be incredibly athletic, competing against boys much older then he in the annual township’s swim competition. “I was about five or six around that time and the high school swim coach noticed me swimming laps in the pool one summer, he said that I swam faster and better than most of his varsity swim team members. Even at that age, I found his remarks to be humorous because I has practically taught myself to swim” Carpenter remarked. Carpenter was known for his confident and competitive nature throughout his early school years and that reputation continued throughout his highschool career. Voted most likely to succeed in his senior yearbook, Carpenter was a force to be reckoned with. He was the varsity wrestling team captain, school newspaper editor, the star of the debate team and the class president. “I never wanted to have a reason to look back and regret not trying something” Carpenter reflected, “I wanted to make sure I had gave everything a shot.”

In December 1973, Carpenter enlisted in the army to fight in Vietnam. He had just turned 18 and answered to call for young men to join the fight. “I didn’t particularly agree with the war, but I felt a deep sense of patriotism and I could not ignore it.” Over the next three years, Carpenter excelled through the army ranks starting as a private and leaving Vietnam as Master Sergeant. Carpenter did not wish to elaborate much on his experiences in Vietnam, stating “I never speak about it with anyone except for the men who were there… they are the only ones who understand.”

After the Fall of Saigon, Carpenter was airlifted out of Vietnam with the remaining troops in the spring of 1975. He returned home to Hartford, Connecticut just before his 20th birthday. While home, Daniel met a woman by the name of Nancy Slater while eating breakfast at a local diner. They began dating. “I knew when I met her that she was something special and I had to marry her,” said Carpenter. Unfortunately after only a few months home Carpenter was called to duty. He left for West Berlin in February of 1976 and his plans to marry Nancy Slater were put on hold. Despite the distance between Carpenter and Slater he kept true to her and wrote her almost every day. “I was in love, and it hurt to be away from her but I knew the oath I took and that this sacrifice was for the good of my country.”

Over the next 3 years Carpenter was stationed in West Berlin at the doorstep of the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War. He once again refused to give details about his time abroad, however his reason this time was different, claiming that details of his service during that time is still to this day classified. “I was stationed in West Berlin for almost 3 years, and it was not pretty, let’s just leave it at that,” said Carpenter with a careful chuckle.

Carpenter returned home in 1978 around Christmas. While in West Germany he had bought an engagement ring for his girlfriend Nancy Slater. Carpenter having risen to the rank of Captain decided to leave the army to get married. He proposed to Nancy on New Years Eve of that year and by May of 1979 they were married. “I was so happy, however my appetite for accomplishment was a problem, I couldn’t sit still.” Around this time Carpenter began working at a local factory which built plumbing parts. “Nancy could see that I was not happy working at a factory, however we had a baby on the way and we were saving for a house.” Over the next several years the Carpenters would have 4 children. Daniel would change jobs three times and eventually become a licenced private investigator. Opening an office in on 42nd Street in Manhattan in 1981. “I loved being a gumshoe… meeting all the interesting people and all the adventures and at that time the city was a much seedier and gritty place.”

When cases were slow Carpenter, an avid chess player would search the city for chess players to fulfill his need for competition. Carpenter became a known chess player in the army. He played all sorts of people and allegedly defeated a famous East German Chess Master while on a diplomatic assignment east of the wall. “I would tell Nancy I was working late and would scour the city for best chess opponents I could find. It sounds crazy but it kept me sharp. I loved playing the bums around the port authority. Those guys sometimes we’re better and smarter than some of the professional players. Some of those fellas were undercover savants.” “I sat on the sidewalk of 43rd and Broadway once for 3 hours playing this one guy by a dumpster, over and over again… and I could not beat him.” “I would sometimes have an epiphany during a match and run back to the office after the game to work on the case.”

In 1986 a client of Carpenter’s was unable to pay in full for his investigator services and offered him two tickets to see CATS. The wildly popular Broadway show had been out since 1981 and was still the highest grossing show in New York. Carpenter accepted the tickets and brought his wife to see the show. “I was immediately enthralled and had to have more, I started taking Nancy to all the Broadway shows… La Cage Aux Folles, 42nd Street, Drood, Sweet Charity… she loved them and so did I. So much so I stopped chasing down chess players and started studying theatre.”

Over the next few years Daniel Carpenter would earn a PH.D. in Drama and become a performing art professor at the local college in Nashua, New Hampshire. It would be here that Carpenter would stay as a professor for many years before retiring in 2014. “My four children have given me 11 grandchildren so I wanted to spend more time with them.”

If you think that in the last 5 Years of retirement that Daniel Carpenter has slowed down, you have another thing coming. Daniel Carpenter has already earned a blackbelt in Kempo, won the county chilli cookoff two years in a row, hosts the annual christmas tree lighting ceremony at his church, directs the community theatre troupe and has taken a stab at philanthropy. Daniel Carpenter started a non-profit foundation that funds theater programs in underprivileged school districts. He has even brought famous retired stage actors to guest teach theater. However Carpenter didn’t stop there, this upcoming year Daniel intends to begin competing as an amateur MMA Fighter in a local circuit. “People often remark about how young I look although I’m in my mid-60s and despite all I do. I tell them it’s a gift and a curse, sometimes I wish I could just sit still and enjoy retirement like most people my age, but I can’t. It drives my wife crazy.”

Now Daniel Carpenter is attempting to enter the rap game, but not for the fame but for his charity work. “I was driving down three-o-five right where I was born in Simsbury and heard this advertisement for a Rap battle in Hartford for a prize of twelve-thousand dollars… and I thought to myself about how that money could be used for good.” Unfortunately for Carpenter he was too late to register for last years tournament however he is hopeful he will win the 2020 competition. “My kids think I’m crazy and I don’t blame them, everyone has thought I was crazy at one point or another.” When asked about how his progress in rap Carpenter declined to elaborate stating “I can’t give you the secret to my sauce before the taste testing,” and carpenter knows a thing or two about taste testing, his busy wall of trophies and awards features his “Annual Chilli Cook-Off — 1st Place” awards for 2014 and 2015. “The way I see it is… this is a mix of everything I know. Music, Drama and Chess.” When asked why chess Carpenter remarked “Chess is pure strategy and rhythm, knowing your opponent and exposing their weaknesses… and knowing the right moment to strike… like martial arts too I suppose… it’s a discipline.”

Carpenter has sure been active in retirement and it seems anything that this 64 year old husband, father, teacher, soldier, detective, chess player and philanthropist puts his mind to he accomplishes. Carpenter shares that the secret to his life of success and accomplishments is having dreams. “Never forget how to have you imagination, never forget that your only limitations are what you let limit you, working hard at something you like… isn’t hard.” Carpenter hopes his wacky and eclectic life story will inspire others to take the first step. commercial interior design california

[phroyd]

We lost one of the Great Film Makers yesterday.  Her soul will live on In Cinema! Rest In Peace, Agnes! - Phroyd

Agnès Varda, a groundbreaking French filmmaker who was closely associated with the New Wave — although her reimagining of filmmaking conventions actually predated the work of Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut and others identified with that movement — died on Friday morning at her home in Paris. She was 90.

Her death, from breast cancer, was confirmed by a spokeswoman for her production company, Ciné-Tamaris.

In recent years, Ms. Varda had focused her directorial skills on nonfiction work that used her life and career as a foundation for philosophical ruminations and visual playfulness. “The Gleaners and I,” a 2000 documentary in which she used the themes of collecting, harvesting and recycling to reflect on her own work, is considered by some to be her masterpiece.

But it was not her last film to receive widespread acclaim. In 2017, at the age of 89, Ms. Varda partnered with the French photographer and muralist known as JR on “Faces Places,” a road movie that featured the two of them roaming rural France, meeting the locals, celebrating them with enormous portraits and forming their own fast friendship. Among its many honors was an Academy Award nomination for best documentary feature. (It did not win, but that year Ms. Varda was given an honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement.)

It was her early dramatic films that helped establish Ms. Varda as both an emblematic feminist and a cinematic firebrand — among them “Cléo From 5 to 7” (1962), in which a pop singer spends a fretful two hours awaiting the result of a cancer examination, and “Le Bonheur” (1965), about a young husband’s blithely choreographed extramarital affair.

Ms. Varda established herself as a maverick cineaste well before such milestones of the New Wave as Mr. Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows” (1959) and Mr. Godard’s “Breathless” (1960). Her “La Pointe Courte” (1955), which juxtaposed the strife of an unhappy couple with the struggles of a French fishing village, anticipated by several years the narrative and visual rule-breaking of directors like Mr. Truffaut, Mr. Godard and Alain Resnais, who edited “La Pointe Courte” and would introduce Ms. Varda to a number of the New Wave principals in Paris.

These included Mr. Truffaut, Mr. Godard, Claude Chabrol and Éric Rohmer, all of whom had gotten their start at the critic André Bazin’s magazine Cahiers du Cinema, and who became known as the Right Bank group. The more politicized and liberal Left Bank group would come to include Mr. Resnais, Chris Marker and Ms. Varda herself.

Arlette Varda was born on May 30, 1928, in Ixelles, Belgium, the daughter of a Greek father and a French mother. She left Belgium with her family in 1940 for Sète, France, where she spent her teenage years. At 18, she changed her name to Agnès.

She studied art history at the École du Louvre and photography at the École des Beaux-Arts before working as a photographer at the Théâtre National Populaire in Paris.

“I just didn’t see films when I was young,” she said in a 2009 interview. “I was stupid and naïve. Maybe I wouldn’t have made films if I had seen lots of others; maybe it would have stopped me.

“I started totally free and crazy and innocent,” she continued. “Now I’ve seen many films, and many beautiful films. And I try to keep a certain level of quality of my films. I don’t do commercials, I don’t do films pre-prepared by other people, I don’t do star system. So I do my own little thing.”

Her “thing” often involved straddling the line between what was commonly accepted as fiction and nonfiction, and defying the boundaries of gender.

“She was very clear about her feeling that the New Wave was a man’s club and that as a woman it was hard for producers to back her, even after she made ‘Cléo’ in 1962,” T. Jefferson Kline, a professor of French at Boston University and the editor of “Agnès Varda: Interviews” (2013), said in an interview for this obituary. “She obviously was not pleased that as a woman filmmaker she had so much trouble getting produced. She went to Los Angeles with her husband, and she said when she came back to France it was like she didn’t exist.”

Ms. Varda was married to the director Jacques Demy (“Lola,” “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg”) from 1962 until his death in 1990. From 1968 to 1970 they lived in Hollywood, where Mr. Demy made “Model Shop” for Columbia Pictures and Ms. Varda made “Lions Love,” which married a meditative late-’60s Los Angeles aesthetic to the New York counterculture. (The cast included the Warhol “superstar” Viva; Gerome Ragni and James Rado, the writers of the book for the musical “Hair”; and the underground filmmaker Shirley Clarke.) During that same period, she shot the short documentary “Black Panthers” (1968), which included an interview with the incarcerated Panther leader Huey Newton; commissioned by French television, it was suppressed at the time.

It was also during that period that she befriended Jim Morrison, the frontman of the Doors, who visited her and Mr. Demy in France; according to Stephen Davis’s “Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend” (2004), she was one of only five mourners at Mr. Morrison’s funeral in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris in 1971. That same year she became one of the 343 women to sign the “Manifesto of the 343,” a French petition acknowledging that they had had abortions and thus making themselves vulnerable to prosecution.

In 1972, the birth of her son, Mathieu Demy, now an actor, prompted Ms. Varda to sideline her career. He survives her, as does the costume designer Rosalie Varda Demy, Ms. Varda’s daughter from a previous relationship, who was adopted by Jacques Demy.

“Despite my joy,” Ms. Varda told the actress Mireille Amiel in a 1975 interview, “I couldn’t help resenting the brakes put on my work and my travels.” So she had an electric line of about 300 feet for her camera and microphone run from her house, and with this “umbilical cord” she managed to interview the shopkeepers and her other neighbors on the Rue Daguerre. The result was “Daguerréotypes” (1976).

In 1977 she made what she called her “feminist musical,” and one of her better-known films, “One Sings, the Other Doesn’t,” which also seemed inspired by personal circumstance.

“It’s the story of two 15-year-old girls, their lives and their ideas,” she told Ms. Amiel. “They have to face this key problem: Do they want to have children or not? They each fall in love and encounter the contradictions — work/image, ideas/love, etc.”

One of Ms. Varda’s more controversial films, because of its casting, was “Kung-Fu Master!” (1988), a fictional work about an adult woman — played by the actress Jane Birkin, a friend of Ms. Varda’s — who falls in love with a teenage boy, played by Ms. Varda’s son. The title — it was changed in France to “Le Petit Amour” — referred to the young character’s favorite arcade game. The film was shot more or less simultaneously with “Jane B. par Agnes V.,” another of Ms. Varda’s border crossings between fact and fiction, which she called “an imaginary biopic.”

After Jacques Demy’s death, Ms. Varda made three films as a tribute: the biographical drama “Jacquot de Nantes” (1991) and the documentaries “Les Demoiselles Ont Eu 25 Ans” (1993), about the 25th anniversary of Mr. Demy’s “The Young Girls of Rochefort,” and “L’Univers de Jacques Demy” (1995).

Ms. Varda was then relatively inactive until 1999, when, armed for the first time with a digital camera, she set about making “Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse” (“The Gleaners and I”), which resurrected an artistic career now well accustomed to under appreciation and resuscitation.

“She was a person of immense talent, but also enormously thoughtful,” said Mr. Kline of Boston University. “When you look at some of the films you might think they were more spontaneous than thought out. A film like ‘Cléo,’ for instance, you might have said, ‘O.K., she just follows Cléo around Paris,’ but the film is extremely beautifully imagined and thought out beforehand.”

In “Vagabond,” an 1985 film in which Sandrine Bonnaire plays a woman who is found dead and whose life is recounted, often in documentary style, “the traveling shots in the film are always ending, and each subsequent shot beginning, on a common visual cue,” Mr. Kline said. “It makes you look at film in a completely different way.”

Alison Smith, author of the critical study “Agnès Varda” (1998), called Ms. Varda “a poet of objects and how we use them.” In an interview for this obituary, she added, “Varda as an artist intrigued, and intrigues, me by the constant freshness and curiosity which she brings to her inquiries into the everyday world and how we relate to it, particularly how she uses the detailed fabric of life.”

Richard Peña, who as director of the New York Film Festival helped introduce “Gleaners” to an American audience, praised that film and Ms. Varda’s “The Beaches of Agnès” (2008) as “touchstones for a new generation of nonfiction filmmakers.”

Ms. Varda is represented at the Museum of Modern Art by photographs, films, videos and a three-screen installation titled “The Triptych of Noirmoutier.” “A decision to change direction and move into installation art when over 80 is, by any standards, remarkable,” Ms. Smith said. “But her energy was awe-inspiring.”

Phroyd

[madlitparanormal]

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Theodore Robert Bundy was born to a twenty two year old woman named Eleanor Cowell on November 24, 1946 in Burlington, Vermont. Eleanor Cowell was the daughter of two very religious parents and being unmarried at the time of her pregnancy and birth, she was sent to have the child in at a home for unwed mothers. Shortly after the birth of her son Theodore she and her baby returned to her parent’s home in Philadelphia, where they would hide the illegitimate birth by claiming he was Eleanor’s adopted brother. A few years later, Cowell took her son and moved to Tacoma, Washington where she married a man named Johnnie Bundy. The family created a content home.

At an early age, Theodore, or as we know him today, Ted or Teddy Bundy, began showing some very unsettling interests in darkness. At age three he became fascinated with knives and later in his school aged years and teens he would peer into windows of young women and steal things that he wanted without a second thought leading to a comprehensive juvenile record. When he turned eighteen the record was dropped. When discussing his childhood and teenaged years, Bundy recollected being very introverted.

He first attended the University of Puget Sound and then transferred to the University of Washington in 1966. There, Theodore fell in love with a woman of wealth and status and they dated for a short period of time. Her most common pseudo-name was Stephanie Brooks, although she gave many to protect her identity. He was desolate over their breakup to which she claimed was in response to Theodore’s lack of ambition and immaturity after dropping out of college in 1968 and working a series of minimum wage jobs. He ran off to Colorado after his breakup with ‘Stephanie’ and ended up visiting family members in Arkansas and Philadelphia. In the spring of 1969 he attended one semester at Temple University but in fall of the same year went back to enroll in the University of Washington. He then met Elizabeth Kloepfer. A divorcée from Utah whom he dated for several years.

In 1972 he graduated with a degree in psychology. In the mid 1970s Bundy had worked his way into a higher social and political status in Washington, volunteering a second time in political campaigns and was awarded with letters of high recommendation for the law program. In 1973 during a trip to California, Bundy rekindled his relationship with ‘Stephanie Brooks’ and even went as far to introduce her to one of his psychology professors as his fiancée. In January of 1974 he unexpectedly ceased all contact with ‘Brooks’. He said in interviews that he essentially just wanted to prove that he was good enough to marry her.

Bundy confessed to attempting his first abduction in 1969 in New Jersey but claimed he hadn’t murdered anyone in Seattle. He also implicated but never fully disclosed earlier murders in 1971, 1972 and 1973. It is unclear where and when he began murdering young women. He was very elusive and told many different versions of his stories to different people.

Therefore, Ted Bundy’s earliest known victim was murdered in 1974. Around this time several young women had disappeared in the Seattle and nearby Oregon areas.

On January 4, 1974 Ted Bundy beat eighteen year old Karen Sparks until she was unconscious and then sexually assaulted her body with the rod he used to murder her. She managed to survive but sustained mental and physical disabilities from the attack.

In February of the same year, he broke into the home of Lynda Ann Healy, rendered her unconscious, and abducted her. March 12, 1974 nineteen year old Donna Gail Manson. April 17 Susan Elaine Rancourt disappeared on her way to her dormitory. May 6 Roberta Kathleen Parks never made her coffee date with friends. At this point, at least one woman per month was disappearing. On June 11 twenty-two year old Georgann Hawkins disappeared on her way to her boyfriend’s dorm.

During all of these disappearances, Bundy was working at the Olympia Department of Emergency Services, involved in the investigation of these missing women. While working there, he met and dated Carole Ann Boone, a woman who was twice divorced and a mother of two.

As women continued disappearing across the Pacific Northwest reports came in of a man wearing a sling and driving a tan or brown Volkswagen Beetle. In July, two women went missing from a crowded beach in broad daylight. Janice Anne Ott aged twenty three and nineteen year old Denise Marie Naslund both disappeared and reports of a man with the same previous description, a sling and a tan beetle, who had given a loaded story about needing help unloading his sailboat. There was no sailboat. He lured the two women to their deaths.

After a sketch and description was released to the public, three of Bundy’s former acquaintances recognized the sketch to look like Theodore. The police however disagreed to him being a possible suspect because he was a clean cut law student with a lack of an adult criminal record.

In August, Bundy discovered that he was not quite as cut out for law school as he’d originally thought. He found the courses he took to be much more difficult and was greatly disappointed that he could not comprehend his lessons. Following this disappointment, a new string of murders began.

In September of 1974, hunters stumbled across human remains. Six months later, forestry students uncovered more human remains that had been dumped. They discovered skulls, vertebrae, and other skeletal remains. As more women continued to disappear, Bundy’s occasional girlfriend Elizabeth called the police to repeat her suspicions about Theodore and he was officially added to the list of suspects.

On August 16, 1975 Ted Bundy was arrested in Utah. His tan Volkswagen Beetle contained a ski mask, a crowbar, handcuffs, an ice pick, and other items generally used for breaking and entering and burglary. Along with the tools that Bundy describes as regular household items (excluding the ski mask he explained to be used for skiing and the handcuffs he had claimed he found in a dumpster) the police also found a brochure to Colorado ski resorts and a brochure for a high school play where one of the victims had disappeared in a search of his house. But it was only circumstantial evidence at best and Bundy was released. He was arrested again and in June of 1976 he was sentenced to one to fifteen years in prison. From there Bundy would escape and flee to several different states including Michigan, Georgia, and eventually, Tallahassee, Florida where he stayed in a boarding house under the alias Chris Hagen.

He claimed that he planned to move forward with his life, working and committing less criminal acts, but it didn’t take long for him to begin shoplifting and theft, he also stole credit cards from women’s purses. One week after his arrival in Florida, in January of 1978, he entered a sorority house of Florida State University and attacked four women, beating them, destroying their bodies, and sexually assaulting them. In the same night, he broke into the apartment of another young woman named Cheryl Thomas. He raped and beat her leaving her with permanent deafness and equilibrium issues. At the crime scene the police found semen and a pantyhose ‘mask’ and two hairs.

In February of 1978 Bundy attempted to abduct a young girl in Jacksonville until the girl’s older brother showed up. Bundy retreated and fled to Lake City where he murdered twelve year old Kimberly Diane Leach. A few days later he made his way back to Tallahassee with a stolen car. He was stopped by a Pensacola officer (one of my two home towns, eerily awesome) and after a vigorous chase and an added charge of assault to a police officer, Bundy was subdued and arrested. In 1979 and 1980 Ted R. Bundy was sentenced three times to death by electrocution. Upon his sentence he shouted, “Tell the jury that they were wrong!”

During his confessions while on death row, Ted Bundy stated that he considered himself to be amateur and impulsive as a murderer until he reached his prime phase beginning in 1974, insinuating that he had begun killing before his first official identified victim, but he never explicitly confessed to murdering anyone before that time.

In 1986 Bundy confessed to returning to the scenes where he had dumped previous victims, multiple times. He said that he would lie with them and perform sexual acts with their putrefying corpses and would continue to do so until their bodies were too decomposed to continue. He confessed to many other horrific crimes including decapitation, lewd acts with a corpse, sexual assault, murder, and mutilation.

Bundy confessed to the murder of at least thirty six young women. On January 24, 1989 about 7:00 AM at the age of forty two, Theodore Robert Bundy died at Florida State Prison by electrocution. He was pronounced dead at 7:16 AM. His body was cremated and before his death he requested that his ashes be scattered in the Cascade Mountains of Washington where at least four of his victims had been disposed. It is unclear from my research what they actually did with his remains. If you know, comment below!

In a final interview, Bundy told reporters that he “deserved the most extreme punishment [that] society has.” He spent his final days praying with a Methodist priest and he even cried. According to the priest he didn’t want to die.

He told reporters in his final interview that he was a normal person and a helpless kind of victim and not some bum or loser hanging out at a bar. He claimed that he felt remorse for all of his sexually motivated killings and even added in that , “killing me isn’t going to restore those beautiful children to their parents.”

His last words: “Yes, Jim and Fred” (his minister and his lawyer) “I’d like you to give my love to my family and friends.”

Ted Bundy was a wreckless and careless murderer. He didn’t bother to cover his tracks and he didn’t care about being seen by others. He hid in plain sight and even though he claims he was not impulsive and amateur after 1974 in reality he always was.

Post Mortem:

[papermoonloveslucy]

LUCY & HENRY FONDA ~ Part One

1935-1968 

Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda were more than just co-workers. When Lucy first got to Hollywood, the two actually briefly dated. Lucy remembers,

"We worked long and hard, Ginger [Rogers] and I, in front of our mirrors. We used eye shadow, plenty of mascara, pancake [make-up], deep red lipstick, rouge, everything we'd been taught in the studio cosmetic department. Then we went out to Brentwood, that's where the boys lived. My date was Fonda. Ginger's date was [Jimmy] Stewart. Henry cooked the dinner, and after we ate, Ginger and the boys turned on the radio in the living room and Ginger tried to teach them ‘The Carioca.’ I was left doing the dishes. When I finished, we went out dancing at the Coconut Grove. Freddie Martin's orchestra. There we were, Ginger and I in our long organdy dresses, looking just as summery and smooth as we could. The date stretched into daybreak. We'd had a hilarious, wonderful evening that came to an end at Barney's Beanery. Well, it was dark and we went in and light when we came out. Hank and Jim took one look at us and said, 'What happened?' We said, 'What do you mean what happened?' And Jimmy Stewart said, 'Well, your nighttime makeup is on awful heavy for this time of the morning.' And Henry Fonda said, 'Yuk!'"

In 1975 Fonda told this story at “The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast” for Lucille Ball. Ginger Rogers was also in attendance. He added that "If I hadn't said, 'Yuk!', if I'd behaved myself, they might have named that studio Henrylu, not Desilu."

Perhaps it is a good thing that Fonda and Ball never married as genealogists point out that they are related - 8th cousins. The pair acted in three feature films together and made numerous television appearances opposite one-another. Curiously, although he was sometimes mentioned, Fonda never guest-starred on a “Lucy” sitcom.  

I Dream Too Much (1935)

Producer: Pandro S. Berman Director: John Cromwell Choreographer: Hermes Pan Screenplay: Elsie Finn (story), David G. Wittels (story), Edmund North Songs: Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields 

Cast: Lily Pons (Annette Monard Street), Henry Fonda (Jonathan Street), Eric Blore (Roger Briggs), Osgood Perkins (Paul Darcy), Lucien Littlefield (Hubert Dilley), Lucille Ball (Gwendolyn Dilley)

Synopsis: Annette Monard Street (Lily Pons) is an aspiring singer, who falls in love with and marries Jonathan Street (Henry Fonda), a struggling young composer. Jonathan pushes her into a singing career, and she soon becomes a star. Meanwhile, Jonathan is unable to sell his music, and he finds himself jealous of his wife's success. Concerned about their relationship, Annette uses her influence to get Jonathan's work turned into a musical comedy. Once she achieves this, she then retires from public life in order to raise a family.

"Lucille replaced Betty Grable, an eighteen-year-old stock player... in the minor role of Gwendolyn Dilley, a bleached-blonde gum-chewer visiting Paris with her parents and little brother.” ~ Kathleen Brady, Lucille

Gwendolyn Dilley (Lucille Ball): "Culture is making my feet hurt."

TRIVIA

At this point in her career, Lucy was a platinum blonde. She had dyed it from her natural mousy brown to get more attention from casting agents and producers. She did not begin coloring her hair its trademark red until the technicolor film Du Barry Was A Lady in 1943.

A brief clip of Lucy in the film is included in “Hollywood the Golden Years: The RKO Story: A Woman's Lot” (1987).  

The Big Street (1942)

Producer: Damon Runyon Director: Irving Reis Screenplay: Leonard Spigelgass, based on the short story “Little Pinks” by Damon Runyon

Cast: Henry Fonda (Little Pinks), Lucille Ball (Gloria Lyons), Barton MacLane (Case Ables), Eugene Pallette (Nicely Nicely Johnson), Agnes Moorehead (Violette Shumberg), Sam Levene (Horsethief), Ray Collins (Professor B)

Uncredited actor Hans Conried played a waiter. On “I Love Lucy” he played Harry Martin in “Redecorating” (S2;E8) and Percy Livermore in “Lucy Hires an English Tutor” (S2;E13), both in 1952. He also did two episodes of “The Lucy Show,” both as her music tutor Dr. Gitterman in 1963.  

'Queen of the Extras' Bess Flowers made numerous uncredited background appearances on both “I Love Lucy” and “The Lucy Show.”  

Uncredited actor Gil Perkins (Mug) later turned up on a 1970 episode of “Here's Lucy” (S2;E21).  

TRIVIA

During filming, Lucy's new husband Desi Arnaz felt so insecure about leaving Lucy and Fonda alone together that he’d often pop by the set to keep an eye on them. His paranoia so exasperated director Irving Reis that he finally banned him from the set.

This was Lucille Ball's favorite of her nearly 80 films. She felt her performance was unjustly ignored by the Academy.

Damon Runyon also created the source material for the hit Broadway musical Guys and Dolls (1950), which starred Robert Alda, who went on to make several appearances on “The Lucy Show.” The two stories share the character of Nicely Nicely Johnson. When the film version was made by MGM in 1955, Lucy and Desi were also under contract to the studio. A brief clip of the film was inserted into the middle of an episode of “I Love Lucy” called “Lucy and the Dummy” (S5;E3), although the clip was removed after its initial airing. Further, when Lucille Ball first came to Hollywood, before becoming a contract player at RKO, she worked for Sam Goldwyn as one of the Goldwyn Girls. In Guys and Dolls, the Hot Box Girls are played by the Goldwyn Girls.

Gloria Lyons (Lucille Ball): “Love is something that gets you one room, two chins, and three kids.”

A brief clip from the film is seen in “Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie.”

“The Good Years” (January 12, 1962)

Produced by: Leland Heyward Directed by: Franklin L. Schaffner

Cast: Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda, Mort Sahl, Margaret Hamilton (Narrator)

Characters included Teddy Roosevelt, Sandow the Bodybuilder, the Wright Brothers, J.P. Morgan, Lizzy Borden   

TRIVIA

This CBS special was billed as 'Lucille Ball's return to television' after leaving Lucy Ricardo behind in April 1960. It would be several more months before the debut of “The Lucy Show” in Fall 1962.   

Based on a best-selling book by Walter Lord first published in 1960 about the years leading up to World War One, the special was a hodge-podge of sketches and musical numbers about the time period 1900 through 1920.

Mort Sahl: “Lucille Ball came into rehearsal. She had a later call and a lot of doubts about the script.”

The 90-minute special was a critical failure and has largely been forgotten. There are few photographs and video copies are held at the Museum of Broadcasting. 

“All About People” (1967)

Director: Saul Rubin

Narrators: Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda, Jack Benny, George Burns, Carol Channing, Eydie Gorme, Charleton Heston, Eartha Kitt, Burt Lancaster, Edward G. Robinson

TRIVIA

This was a 30-minute black and white documentary made by the United Jewish Welfare Fund about its history. 

After marrying Gary Morton (nee Morton Goldapper), Lucille Ball was active in Jewish charities. On December 9, 1961, Lucy had appeared on the “Twelve Star Salute to the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies.” 

Burns, Benny, and Gorme, all later made appearances on “Here's Lucy.” Edward G. Robinson did a cameo on “The Lucy Show.”  

Although Ball and Fonda are both involved in the project, they likely recorded their narration separately. 

Yours, Mine and Ours  (1968)

Producer: Robert F. Blumofe Director: Melville Shavelson Screenplay: Melville Shavelson and Mort Lachman, with story by Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Davis (Lucy’s TV writers), based on the book Who Gets The Drumsticks? by Helen Eileen Beardsley

Cast: Lucille Ball (Helen North Beardsley), Henry Fonda (Frank Beardsley), Van Johnson (Darrel Harrison)

Nancy Howard (Nancy Beardsley) made three appearances on “Here's Lucy.” Tim Matheson (Mike Beardsley) made an appearance on a 1972 “Here's Lucy” playing Kim Carter’s boyfriend. 

Uncredited extras Leon Alton, Paul Bradley, Charles Cirillo, George Boyce, Paul King, Joseph LaCava, and Leoda Richards all made numerous background appearances on “The Lucy Show” and “Here's Lucy.”

Synopsis: A widower with ten children falls for a widow with eight, and they must decide about forming a huge, unconventional family.

TRIVIA

Jane Fonda claimed that her father was deeply in love with Lucy and that the two were "very close" during the filming of Yours, Mine and Ours but that Lucy wasn't in love with him.

After purchasing the rights to the book the film was based on, Lucille Ball became very close to the real Beardsleys and even treated the whole family to a vacation at Disneyland. 

In 1959, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, still affiliated with MGM, were going to star as Frank and Helen Beardsley but the studio had trouble with the casting until the late 1960s. In addition, their marriage was then on the rocks, a situation which would have made working together on the optimistic comedy somewhat problematic.

Lucy's old friend John Wayne was initially considered to play Frank Beardsley. The role was cast with Fred MacMurray, but he was replaced by Henry Fonda.  

Frank (Henry Fonda): “I don't quite understand. Am I being stupid?” Helen (Lucille Ball): “No, you're being a man. Which is sometimes the same thing.”

Lucille Ball co-produced the film under her company, Desilu Productions. When the film became a surprise smash hit grossing over $17 million on a $2.5 million investment, she hadn't anticipated the film's huge box-office success and failed to provide a tax shelter for her personal profits, resulting in most of her earnings going toward taxes.

The success of the film led to Lucy being considered to play Mrs. Brady in “The Brady Bunch,” a TV sitcom with a similar story of a blended family. Lucy decided to do her own sitcom, “Here's Lucy,” instead.

In 1968, Van Johnson guest starred on “Here's Lucy” as both himself and an impostor look-alike in “Guess Who Owes Lucy $23.50” (HL S1;E11). The dialogue contained references to Yours, Mine and Ours and their co-star Henry Fonda.

Van Johnson Impostor: “I loved working with that kooky redhead.” Lucy Carter: “Personally, I thought she was much too young for Henry Fonda.”

Johnson was in the cast of Too Many Girls, the film which introduced Lucy to Desi in 1940. Johnson also guest-starred on “I Love Lucy” in “The Dancing Star” (S4;E27) in 1955.

Click Here for Part Two: 1975 to 1979!

[leftistfeminista]

https://twitter.com/Milkalaz/status/1584928334651105281

The so-called Sexy Blindfold Chilean torture center was discovered by the testimonies collected at the Vicaría de la Solidaridad, where those who came out alive, pointed out that the bathroom had a particular characteristic: a porthole-type window, that added to what could be remembered from the tours

I have read and written so much on the topic of the horrid abuses of Venda Sexy, it is so powerful to see a photograph from inside it, where the abuse occurred. Thanks to the Chilean comrade for providing it. The voyeurism of the capitalist surveillance state was never more literal than here. 

Three passages from Robinson Rojas Sandford, The Murder of Allende and the End of the Chilean Way of Socialism, Translated from the Spanish by Andrée Conrad, New York (Harper and Row) 1975, 1976: pp.206-210.  discuss this abuse-

“A woman professor at the East Santiago campus of the University of Chile, married, with two children, was detained for forty days in the National Stadium. She wrote me this about the "female prisoners of war":

They were obliged to remain all day long face down with their hands on their necks and their legs spread. . . . There were lines of them kneeling or standing against the walls, and at the slightest movement they were struck or kicked - and, in several cases I saw, shot. In rooms fifteen by eighteen feet there were a hundred women. Food came only once a day, at 4 or 5 P.M. There were mainly two groups of women: workers and university professors. Girls and women were harassed, obliged to disrobe, manhandled, and insulted as a preamble to the interrogations. 

The academics among us had been taken out of our classrooms at gunpoint. One group of schoolteachers had a typically sad experience: at the investigatory commission one of them had her hair cropped off . . then at Los Cerros de Chena, the eyes were always blindfolded. To go to the bathroom, they had to be accompanied by guards who took the opportunity to manhandle and beat them. They were interrogated naked.“

Leftist women were basically made to choose between wetting themselves or going to the toilet with the guard watching them all the time. Making women choose between humiliating themselves or letting a man objectify them and humiliate them that way. Even their most private bodily functions had to be performed under the Junta gaze. 

[truecrimehistory]

Dennis Rader: BTK Killer

Early Life

Dennis Lynn Rader was born on March 9, 1945, in Pittsburg, Kansas, and grew up in Wichita. The oldest of four sons, he enjoyed a seemingly normal childhood, reportedly masking such disturbing behavior as hanging stray animals. Rader dropped out of college and joined the U.S. Air Force in the mid-1960s. After returning to Wichita, he married his wife, Paula, in 1971, and worked for an outdoor-supply company for about a year. In 1974, he began a lengthy stint as an employee of ADT Security Services.

First Murders

On January 15, 1974, Rader strangled to death four members of the Otero family in their Wichita home—parents Joseph and Julie, and two of their children, Josephine and Joseph Jr. — before leaving with a watch and a radio. Strangulation and souvenir-taking would become part of his modus operandi or pattern of behavior. He also left semen at the scene and later said that he derived sexual pleasure from killing. The Oteros' 15-year-old son, Charlie, came home later that day and discovered the bodies. Rader struck again a few months later: On April 4, 1974, he waited in the apartment of a young woman named Kathryn Bright, before stabbing and strangling her when she returned home. Rader also twice shot her brother, Kevin, though he survived. Kevin later described Rader as "an average-sized guy, bushy mustache, 'psychotic' eyes," according to a TIME magazine article. In October 1974, Rader placed a letter in a public library book in which he took responsibility for killing the Oteros. The letter ended up with a local newspaper, and the poorly written note gave authorities some idea of who they were dealing with. Rader wrote, "It's hard to control myself. You probably call me 'psychotic with sexual perversion hang-up.'" He warned that he would strike again, noting, "The code words for me will bind them, torture them, kill them, B.T.K." The initials stuck, and the murderer came to be known by variations of the "BTK killer" moniker, or simply "BTK."Rader's next known crimes occurred in 1977. In March of that year, he tied up and strangled Shirley Vian, after locking her children in the bathroom. In December, he strangled Nancy Fox in her home, and then called the police to report the homicide. Shortly afterward, in January 1978, Rader sent a poem to a local newspaper about the Vian killing. Several weeks later, he sent a letter to a local television station stating that he was responsible for killing Vian, Fox and another unknown victim. He also made allusions to several other notorious killers, including Ted Bundy and David Berkowitz, also known as the "Son of Sam."Despite his cat-and-mouse game with authorities, Rader was able to keep the lid on his secret, murderous life. Reportedly an attentive husband, he and his wife had a son in 1975 and a daughter in 1978. The next year, Rader graduated from Wichita State University with a degree in administration of justice. Still, he continued to taunt authorities and appeared to be poised to strike again.In April 1979, Rader waited in an elderly woman’s home but left before she returned. He sent her a letter to let her know that BTK had been there. In an effort to catch him, the authorities released the 1977 recording of his phone call to police, hoping that someone might recognize the voice.After several years without a known crime, Rader killed his neighbor Marine Hedge on April 27, 1985. Her body was found days later on the side of the road. The following year, he killed Vicki Wegerle in her home. His final known victim, Dolores Davis, was taken from her home on January 19, 1991.

Return, Arrest, and Imprisonment

Over the next several years, BTK dropped off the map as Rader focused on work and family life. He had left ADT in the late 1980s and started working for the Wichita suburb of Park City as a compliance supervisor in 1991. In his new position, Rader was known to be a stickler for the rules. He measured the height of people's lawns and chased stray animals while toting a tranquilizer gun. According to reports, Rader took pleasure in exerting his limited authority over his neighbors and other members of the community. He was also a Boy Scout troop leader and president of his church council.With many news stories marking the 30th anniversary of the Otero murders, BTK resurfaced in 2004. Rader sent local media outlets and authorities several letters filled with items related to his crimes, including pictures, a word puzzle and an outline for the "BTK Story." He also left packages with clues, including a computer disk that ultimately led authorities to Rader's church. Investigators also noticed his white van on security tapes of some of the package drop-off areas and cemented their case by obtaining a DNA sample from Rader's daughter. Rader was arrested on February 25, 2005, and later charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder. His neighbors and fellow church members were stunned by the news, unable to believe that the man they knew was the serial killer that had haunted the area for so long.Rader pleaded guilty to all of the charges on June 27, 2005. As part of his plea, he gave the horrifying details of his crimes in court. Many observers noted that he described the gruesome events without any sign of remorse or emotion. Because he committed his crimes before the state's 1994 reinstatement of the death penalty, Rader was sent to El Dorado Correctional Facility to serve his 10 life sentences.

Depictions in Pop Culture

Rader's story inspired the Stephen King novella A Good Marriage, which was published as part of the 2010 collection Full Dark, No Stars and later became a feature film. In 2016, forensic psychology professor Katherine Ramsland published Confession of a Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer, which revealed that the notorious murderer had planned to claim an 11th victim before he was arrested. In October 2017 Netflix's crime drama, Mindhunter, was released to critical acclaim. One of the serial killer characters known as ADT Man on the show is based on Rader.

[theuncannytruthteller]

Granville Tailer Woods (April 23, 1856 – January 30, 1910) was an American inventor who held more than 50 patents. He is also the first American of African ancestry to be a mechanical and electrical engineer after the Civil War. Self-taught, he concentrated most of his work on trains and streetcars. One of his notable inventions was the Multiplex Telegraph, a device that sent messages between train stations and moving trains. His work assured a safer and better public transportation system for the cities of the United States. Granville T. Woods was born to Martha J. Brown and Cyrus Woods. He also had a brother named Lyates. His mother was part Native American, and his father was African American. Granville attended school in Columbus until age 10, but had to leave due to his family's poverty, which necessitated in his need to work; he served an apprenticeship in a machine shop and learned the trades of machinist and blacksmith. Some sources of his day asserted that he also received two years of college-level training in "electrical and mechanical engineering," but little is known about where he might have studied. In 1872 , Woods obtained a job as a fireman on the Danville and Southern Railroad in Missouri, eventually becoming an engineer. In December 1874, he moved to Springfield, Illinois, and worked at a rolling mill, the Springfield Iron Works. He studied mechanical and electrical engineering in college from 1876-1878. In 1878, he took a job aboard the "Ironsides", and, within two years, became Chief Engineer of the steamer. When he returned to Ohio, he became an engineer with the Dayton and Southwestern Railroad in southwestern Ohio. In 1880, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio and established his business as an electrical engineer and an inventor. After receiving the patent for the multiplex telegraph, he reorganized his Cincinnati company as the Woods Electric Co, but in 1892 he moved his own research operations to New York City, where he was joined by a brother, Lyates Woods, who also had several inventions of his own. Some internet sources claim he was married. However, the newspapers of his day generally referred to him as a "bachelor." The one indication that he had been married at some point was a brief mention in 1891 that said he was being sued for divorce by a woman identified as Ada Woods. But while little more was said of his personal life, Granville T. Woods was often described as an articulate and well-spoken man, as well as meticulous and stylish in his choice of clothing, and a man who preferred to dress in black. At times, he would refer to himself as an immigrant from Australia, in the belief that he would be given more respect if people thought he was from a foreign country, as opposed to being an African American. In his day, the black newspapers frequently expressed their pride in his achievements, saying he was "the greatest of Negro inventors", and sometimes even calling him "professor," although there is no evidence he ever received a college degree. Though largely self-taught, he studied electrical and mechanical engineering from 1876 to 1878. After that he worked on a British steamer, then became an engineer on a railroad based in Cincinnati, where he settled around 1880. Woods received his first patent in 1884 for a steam boiler furnace. In 1885 he invented a system called telegraphony, which allowed telegraph lines to carry voice signals. In 1887 he patented the induction telegraph for sending messages to and from moving trains. Other inventions for electric railways included electromechanical and electromagnetic brakes, a wheeled trolley for drawing power for streetcars from an overhead wires and a safety cutout to prevent injury from accidental contact with overhead wires. For a while he manufactured and sold his inventions through the Woods Electric Company, but he later sold his patent rights to the General Electric Company. In 1890 Woods moved to New York City. In collaboration with his brother Lyates he patented emergency braking systems and devices relating to third-rail power. During his prolific career, Woods received 35 patents for inventions that contributed to the development of the transportation and communication industries. As a Black inventor, however, he had difficulty in marketing his inventions and sold them instead to well-financed corporations, such as General Electric and American Bell Telephone. Woods spent the last years of his life in virtual poverty as he battled in court for control of his inventions. Woods invented and patented Tunnel Construction for the electric railroad system, and was referred to by some as the "Black Edison." In 1885, Woods patented an apparatus which was a combination of a telephone and a telegraph. The device, which he called "telegraphony", would allow a telegraph station to send voice and telegraph messages over a single wire. He sold the rights to this device to the American Bell Telephone Company. In 1887, he patented the Synchronous Multiplex Railway Telegraph which allowed communications between train stations from moving trains, a technology pioneered by Lucius Phelps in 1884. Thomas Edison later filed a claim to the ownership of this patent. In 1888, Woods manufactured a system of overhead electric conducting lines for railroads modeled after the system pioneered by Charles van Depoele, a famed inventor who had by then installed his electric railway system in thirteen U.S. cities. In 1889, he filed a patent for an improvement to the steam-boiler furnace. Granville Woods often had difficulties in enjoying his success as other inventors made claims to his devices. Thomas Edison made one of these claims, stating that he had first created a similar telegraph and that he was entitled to the patent for the device. Woods was twice successful in defending himself, proving that there were no other devices upon which he could have depended or relied upon to make his device. After Thomas Edison's second defeat, he decided to offer Granville Woods a position with the Edison Company, but Granville declined. Woods is sometimes credited with the invention of the electric third rail, however, many third rail systems were in place in both Europe and North America at the time Woods filed for his patent in 1901. Thomas Edison had been awarded a patent for the third rail almost two decades earlier, in 1882. Woods is also sometimes credited with the invention of the air brake in 1904 for trains, however, George Westinghouse patented the air brake almost 40 years prior. Over the course of his lifetime Granville Woods would obtain more than 50 patents for inventions including an automatic brake and an egg incubator and for improvements to other inventions such as safety circuits, telegraph, telephone, and phonograph. He died on January 30, 1910 in New York City, having sold a number of his devices to such companies as Westinghouse, General Electric and American Engineering. Until 1975, his resting place was an unmarked grave, but historian M.A. Harris helped to raise funds, and persuaded several of the corporations that used Woods's inventions to donate towards a headstone. It was erected at St. Michael's Cemetery in Elmhurst, Queens NY. Baltimore City Community College established the Granville T Woods scholarship in memory of the inventor.

[anti-capitalistlesbianwitch]

Time Magazine’s Person of the Year began in 1927. Here are the eight occasions when women have been recognized as Person of the year:

(1936) Wallis Simpson - In 1936, Simpson's relationship with King Edward VIII led the king to abdicate his throne in order to marry her.

(1937) Soong Mei-ling - Soong was wife of Chiang Kai-shek from 1927 until his death in 1975. Addressed as Madame Chiang Kai-Shek by the magazine, she was recognized together with her husband as "Man & Wife of the Year".

(1952) Elizabeth II - In 1952, Elizabeth acceded to the throne of the United Kingdom upon the death of her father, King George VI

(1975) American women - Represented by Susan Brownmiller, Kathleen Byerly, Alison Cheek, Jill Conway, Betty Ford, Ella Grasso, Carla Hills, Barbara Jordan, Billie Jean King, Carol Sutton, Susie Sharp, and Addie Wyatt.

(1986) Corazon Aquino - Aquino was a prominent figure in 1986's People Power Revolution, being elected President of the Philippines.

(2002) The Whistleblowers - Represented by Cynthia Cooper, Coleen Rowley and Sherron Watkins. In 2001, Watkins uncovered accounting irregularities in the financial reportsof Enron, testifying before Congressional committees the following year. In 2002, Cooper exposed a $3.8 billion fraud at WorldCom. At the time, this was the largest incident of accounting fraud in U.S. history. In 2002, Rowley, an FBI agent, gave testimony about the FBI's mishandling of information related to the September 11 attacks of 2001.

(2015) Angela Merkel -  Chancellor of Germany since 2005, recognized for leadership in the Greek debt crisis and European migrant crisis.

(2017) The Silence Breakers - The people who spoke out against sexual abuse and harassment, including the figureheads of the Me Too movement. Represented on the cover by strawberry picker Isabel Pascual (pseudonym), lobbyist Adama Iwu, actress Ashley Judd, software engineer Susan Fowler, singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and a sixth woman, a hospital worker who wished to remain anonymous and whose face cannot be seen. The feature also specifically spotlights, in order, actress Alyssa Milano, activist Tarana Burke, actress Selma Blair, the six plantiffs in a lawsuit against the Plaza Hotel, politician Sara Gelser, dishwasher Sandra Pezqueda, filmmaker Blaise Godbe Lipman, actress Rose McGowan, psychotherapist and writer Wendy Walsh, blogger Lindsey Reynolds, entrepreneur Lindsay Meyer, housekeeper Juana Melara, journalist Sandra Muller, actor Terry Crews, University of Rochester professors Celeste Kidd and Jessica Cantlon, journalist Megyn Kelly and art curator Amanda Schmitt

(For comparison, nine men including Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Joseph Stalin, Barack Obama each were the person of the year twice, and Franklin D, Roosevelt made it it three times. None of those men made it because they were notable husbands.)

Read the full article: In 90 years women have made Person of the Year covers eight times

[aion-rsa]

Sean Connery, Acting Icon and Original James Bond, Dies at 90

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Sean Connery, one of the truly iconic actors of Hollywood, died overnight in the Bahamas at the age of 90. No cause of death was announced.

The Scottish actor’s career spanned five-decades in which he played a wide range of unforgettable characters, many of them iconic on their own. But he will always be known as the first, best and most recognizable actor to play the British Spy with the license to kill, James Bond. He played Agent 007 in seven movies, beginning with the first James Bond movie Dr. No in 1962.

But Connery was no mere espionage agent, and he certainly wasn’t secret. Connery starred opposite Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1964 film Marnie. He stood out in a crowded all-star cast in Murder on the Orient Express from 1974. He escaped Alcatraz in The Rock (1996), defected to the United States in The Hunt for Red October, saved the day as a firefighting King Agamemnon in Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits in 1981, and played Indiana Jones’ father, professor Henry Jones Sr., in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989. He won an Academy Award for best supporting actor for his role The Untouchables in 1987. He played Officer Jim Malone, a tough Irish cop chasing gangsters in Al Capone-era Chicago. 

Thomas Sean Connery was born on Aug. 25, 1930, in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, Scotland. His mother was a cleaning woman. His father was a truck driver. His region was in a financial depression and his family lived near poverty levels. Connery dropped out of school when he was 13. He joined the Royal Navy at 16, serving three years before being discharged with ulcers.

After his discharge, Connery shoveled coal, polished coffins, laid bricks, and posed for art students at the Edinburgh Art School. He took up bodybuilding and competed as “Mr. Scotland” in the Mr. Universe competition in London. It got him his first role in the chorus of a touring show of the musical South Pacific, which is where he met Caine in 1954. Connery chose acting over his plan of becoming a professional soccer player because it offered more longevity. Connery made up for his missed education by studying Shakespeare, Ibsen, Brecht.

Connery had bit parts on London productions until he was cast in Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution at Q Theatre in 1955. This led to several roles at the Oxford Playhouse. Connery’s TV debut came in with a small role in the series The Square Ring. He played multiple roles in the series The Condemned. In 1956, Connery played a criminal in the “Ladies of the Manor” episode of BBC Television’s Dixon of Dock Green. His first starring role on TV came in April 1957, when he played Mountain McLintock in BBC Television’s production of Requiem for a Heavyweight.

Connery’s film debut came in 1957 in the film No Road Back, directed by Montgomery Tully. Connery played Spike, a gangster with a speech impediment. He also had roles in the films Hell Drivers, Action of the Tiger, and Time Lock that year. He played a war correspondent to Lana Turner’s journalist in Another Time, Another Place in 1958. His first leading role came in Robert Stevenson’s Walt Disney Productions film Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959).

Hot off his performance in a 1961 television adaptation of Anna Karenina, Connery auditioned for James Bond producers “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. Connery was not author Ian Fleming’s first choice to play Bond. He’d wanted James Mason. The studio also auditioned or considered David Niven, Trevor Howard, Cary Grant and Richard Burton. After Dr. No premiered, Fleming began writing Bond as half-Scottish in his books.

 Connery made five more Bond films over the next 10 years: From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), and Diamonds Are Forever (1968). He skipped On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), allowing George Lazenby to marry Diana Rigg, but returned to the role with Never Say Never Again (1983), when he was 52.

While initially experiencing a short post-Bond slump, Connery came back with a run of memorable performances in such films as Murder on the Orient Express, The Wind and the Lion and John Huston’s The Man Who Would Be King. He played Robin Hood to Audrey Hepburn’s Maid Marian in Robin and Marian. He later put in a cameo as King Richard the Lionheart at the end of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). Connery also starred as the “Brutal Exterminator” Zed in John Boorman’s Zardoz in 1974. He commanded the all-star war movie A Bridge Too Far in 1977.

Connery won a BAFTA for his role in The Name of the Rose (1986), and his only Oscar for his role in Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables. He starred with Michelle Pfeiffer, but let Branford Marsalis dub his saxophone in the Glasnostic film The Russia House. He played Juan Sanchez-Villalobos Ramierez in the 1986 cult fantasy Highlander. He also played in the films First Knight (1995), Just Cause (1995), The Avengers (1998), Entrapment (1999), and Finding Forrester (2000). Connery voiced the role of the dragon Draco in the film Dragonheart in 1996.

Connery retired after making The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), turning down the role of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series, and the Architect in The Matrix trilogy. He found a second life when Darrell Hammond played Connery as a master of the double entendre on Saturday Night Live’s recurring “Celebrity Jeopardy” sketch. Connery was knighted in 2000, and received the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award in 2006.

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Connery and his first wife, actress Diane Cilento, divorced in 1973. He married his second wife, French artist Micheline Roquebrune, in 1975. He is survived by his son, Jason.

The post Sean Connery, Acting Icon and Original James Bond, Dies at 90 appeared first on Den of Geek.

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