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#21 timeless

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Posted 17 July 2008 - 04:08 PM

Happy birthday, Vince Guaraldi! I drink to his shade. The guy composed some wonderful melodies for those Charlie Brown specials, and so much more:



http://encyclopedia..../Vince Guaraldi
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream. - Edgar Allen Poe

It's the olden lure, it's the golden lure, it's the lure of the timeless things. - Robert Service

For the myth is the foundation of life; it is the timeless schema, the pious formula into which life flows when it reproduces its traits out of the unconscious. - Thomas Mann

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. - Norman Maclean

#22 Kortoso

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Posted 17 July 2008 - 05:00 PM

Actually July 15 is the Japanese festival of Obon. Some calendars have it on August 15, so I am safe yet.

#23 amster

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Posted 18 July 2008 - 05:41 AM

July 18, a day of infamy...

390 BC - Roman-Gaulish Wars: Battle of the Allia - A Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome.

64 - Great fire of Rome: A fire begins to burn in the merchant area of Rome and soon burns completely out of control while Emperor Nero reportedly plays his lyre and sings while watching the blaze from a safe distance.

1925 - Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.

1969 - After a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts drives an Oldsmobile off a wooden bridge into a tide-swept pond and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, dies.

1972 - Staines air disaster - 118 killed as plane crashes 2 minutes after take off from London Heathrow Airport

1982 - 268 campesinos ("peasants" or "country people") are slain in the Plan de S?nchez massacre in R?os Montt's Guatemala.

1984 - McDonald's massacre in San Ysidro, California: In a fast-food restaurant, James Oliver Huberty opens fire, killing 21 people and injuring 19 others before being shot dead by police.

1995 - On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufriere Hills volcano erupts. Over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital and forcing most of the population to flee.

1996 - Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River, beginning one of Qu?bec's costliest natural disasters ever.
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Money and muscle, that's what I want; to be able to do any damned thing I want and get away with it. Money won't do that altogether, because if a man is a weakling, all the money in the world won't enable him to soak an enemy himself; on the other hand, unless he has money he may not be able to get away with it.
--Robert E. Howard to Harold Preece, ca. June 1928--

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Posted 20 July 2008 - 06:09 PM

Greetings!

At 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth, speaks these words to more than a billion people listening at home: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Stepping off the lunar landing module Eagle, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.

The American effort to send astronauts to the moon has its origins in a famous appeal President John F. Kennedy made to a special joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961: "I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth." At the time, the United States was still trailing the Soviet Union in space developments, and Cold War-era America welcomed Kennedy's bold proposal.

In 1966, after five years of work by an international team of scientists and engineers, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) conducted the first unmanned Apollo mission, testing the structural integrity of the proposed launch vehicle and spacecraft combination. Then, on January 27, 1967, tragedy struck at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, when a fire broke out during a manned launch-pad test of the Apollo spacecraft and Saturn rocket. Three astronauts were killed in the fire.

Despite the setback, NASA and its thousands of employees forged ahead, and in October 1968, Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, orbited Earth and successfully tested many of the sophisticated systems needed to conduct a moon journey and landing. In December of the same year, Apollo 8 took three astronauts to the dark side of the moon and back, and in March 1969 Apollo 9 tested the lunar module for the first time while in Earth orbit. Then in May, the three astronauts of Apollo 10 took the first complete Apollo spacecraft around the moon in a dry run for the scheduled July landing mission.

At 9:32 a.m. on July 16, with the world watching, Apollo 11 took off from Kennedy Space Center with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin Jr., and Michael Collins aboard. Armstrong, a 38-year-old civilian research pilot, was the commander of the mission. After traveling 240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11 entered into a lunar orbit on July 19. The next day, at 1:46 p.m., the lunar module Eagle, manned by Armstrong and Aldrin, separated from the command module, where Collins remained. Two hours later, the Eagle began its descent to the lunar surface, and at 4:18 p.m. the craft touched down on the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong immediately radioed to Mission Control in Houston, Texas, a famous message: "The Eagle has landed."

At 10:39 p.m., five hours ahead of the original schedule, Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module. As he made his way down the lunar module's ladder, a television camera attached to the craft recorded his progress and beamed the signal back to Earth, where hundreds of millions watched in great anticipation. At 10:56 p.m., Armstrong spoke his famous quote, which he later contended was slightly garbled by his microphone and meant to be "that's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." He then planted his left foot on the gray, powdery surface, took a cautious step forward, and humanity had walked on the moon.

"Buzz" Aldrin joined him on the moon's surface at 11:11 p.m., and together they took photographs of the terrain, planted a U.S. flag, ran a few simple scientific tests, and spoke with President Richard M. Nixon via Houston. By 1:11 a.m. on July 21, both astronauts were back in the lunar module and the hatch was closed. The two men slept that night on the surface of the moon, and at 1:54 p.m. the Eagle began its ascent back to the command module. Among the items left on the surface of the moon was a plaque that read: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the moon--July 1969 A.D--We came in peace for all mankind."

At 5:35 p.m., Armstrong and Aldrin successfully docked and rejoined Collins, and at 12:56 a.m. on July 22 Apollo 11 began its journey home, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:51 p.m. on July 24.

There would be five more successful lunar landing missions, and one unplanned lunar swing-by, Apollo 13. The last men to walk on the moon, astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 mission, left the lunar surface on December 14, 1972. The Apollo program was a costly and labor intensive endeavor, involving an estimated 400,000 engineers, technicians, and scientists, and costing $24 billion (close to $100 billion in today's dollars). The expense was justified by Kennedy's 1961 mandate to beat the Soviets to the moon, and after the feat was accomplished ongoing missions lost their viability.






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#25 PainBrush

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Posted 21 July 2008 - 02:23 AM

July 20 1976 - The Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars ,
& is immediately attacked by some alien life-form :D

birthdays today:
Carlos Santana
Stone Gossard
Pavel Datsyuk
Alexander the grape
I kind of question that one , with the changes from the Roman , Alexandrian , Julian , Gregorian calendars over the years ( some of which lasted 455 days long , 355 days long , Caesar added 67 more days on his Julian calendar than the Roman cal. , there were frequent periods when leap years were added every 3 years , or not at all , the pontiffs added/subtracted days etc. etc. ) who could figure out an exact date 'positively' that far back ? - The only reliable way would be to use the old pagan calendars that have a set amount of days from vernal equinoxes & moons , & other sun/moon based calendars that have been constant through the millenia ( Hebrew , Chinese , Muslim etc. )

" You have a good point there,...put your helmet on & no-one will notice it ."
" Look for a long time at what pleases you... and longer still at what pains you "
So THIS is civilization ??!??!......

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#26 timeless

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Posted 23 July 2008 - 04:21 PM

Raymond Chandler's birthday, 1888.

Yet another complex, unhappy man who was a writer. Started his career later in life, influenced by Dashiell Hammet, then went on to define the detective character. Also nailed his adopted home, Los Angeles. All of his novels were adapted to movies and he wrote original scripts as well. Married an older woman with money. Drank a lot and then attempted suicide after her death. Not exactly a happy life, but his work still shines. Philip Marlowe is one of the most iconic characters in fiction.

Some memorable lines and quotes:



The more you reason the less you create.


She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket.


If my books had been any worse, I should not have been invited to Hollywood, and if they had been any better, I should not have come.


He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food.


From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream. - Edgar Allen Poe

It's the olden lure, it's the golden lure, it's the lure of the timeless things. - Robert Service

For the myth is the foundation of life; it is the timeless schema, the pious formula into which life flows when it reproduces its traits out of the unconscious. - Thomas Mann

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. - Norman Maclean

#27 John Maddox Roberts

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Posted 23 July 2008 - 05:21 PM

My favorite chandler line:
"She had the kind of body that would make a bishop kick out a stained-glass window."

#28 timeless

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Posted 23 July 2008 - 05:47 PM

A great opening paragraph for 'The Red Wind:'


"There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Ana's that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge."
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream. - Edgar Allen Poe

It's the olden lure, it's the golden lure, it's the lure of the timeless things. - Robert Service

For the myth is the foundation of life; it is the timeless schema, the pious formula into which life flows when it reproduces its traits out of the unconscious. - Thomas Mann

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. - Norman Maclean

#29 timeless

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Posted 04 August 2008 - 06:53 PM

This day in Feudalism history:


http://encyclopedia......ch Revolution
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream. - Edgar Allen Poe

It's the olden lure, it's the golden lure, it's the lure of the timeless things. - Robert Service

For the myth is the foundation of life; it is the timeless schema, the pious formula into which life flows when it reproduces its traits out of the unconscious. - Thomas Mann

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. - Norman Maclean

#30 timeless

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Posted 05 August 2008 - 04:48 PM

The birthday of John Huston:


http://www.nytimes.c.../bday/0805.html


By most accounts, an arrogant *******. But he did create some interesting art.
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream. - Edgar Allen Poe

It's the olden lure, it's the golden lure, it's the lure of the timeless things. - Robert Service

For the myth is the foundation of life; it is the timeless schema, the pious formula into which life flows when it reproduces its traits out of the unconscious. - Thomas Mann

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. - Norman Maclean

#31 amster

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Posted 05 August 2008 - 05:23 PM

The birthday of John Huston:


http://www.nytimes.c.../bday/0805.html


By most accounts, an arrogant *******. But he did create some interesting art.


The voice of Gandalf. And who can forget his portrayal of the incestuous villian in Chinatown?

The there's one of the funniest lines in film history: "Badges?!? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING BADGES!!!"
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Money and muscle, that's what I want; to be able to do any damned thing I want and get away with it. Money won't do that altogether, because if a man is a weakling, all the money in the world won't enable him to soak an enemy himself; on the other hand, unless he has money he may not be able to get away with it.
--Robert E. Howard to Harold Preece, ca. June 1928--

#32 timeless

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Posted 05 August 2008 - 07:03 PM

Ray Bradbury based his ******* film director character in 'The Banshee' on Huston. His little act of revenge. The character is killed in the end of the story by an Irish 'wailing woman' ghost. Creepy and cool little tale.
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream. - Edgar Allen Poe

It's the olden lure, it's the golden lure, it's the lure of the timeless things. - Robert Service

For the myth is the foundation of life; it is the timeless schema, the pious formula into which life flows when it reproduces its traits out of the unconscious. - Thomas Mann

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. - Norman Maclean

#33 timeless

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Posted 06 August 2008 - 04:36 PM

Today's Alfred Tennyson's birthday, 1809, Shropshire. In a time when Charles Dickens and others were popularizing the novel, Tennyson was one of the last poets to sell as many books as the novel writers.

His best, IMO:



Ulysses


It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoyed
Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vexed the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honoured of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers;
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life. Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this grey spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle ?
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and through soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me ?
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads ? you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream. - Edgar Allen Poe

It's the olden lure, it's the golden lure, it's the lure of the timeless things. - Robert Service

For the myth is the foundation of life; it is the timeless schema, the pious formula into which life flows when it reproduces its traits out of the unconscious. - Thomas Mann

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. - Norman Maclean

#34 Guest_Tu for Kull_*

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Posted 08 August 2008 - 06:18 PM

Greetings!
All,I will try to post something(hopefully) people will find interesting

August 8, 1863


Lee offers resignation
In the aftermath of his defeat at Gettysburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

The letter came more than a month after Lee's retreat from Pennsylvania. At first, many people in the South wondered if in fact Lee had lost the battle. Lee's intent had been to drive the Union army from Virginia, which he did. The Army of the Potomac suffered over 28,000 casualties, and the Union army's offensive capabilities were temporarily disabled. But the Army of Northern Virginia absorbed 23,000 casualties, nearly one-third of its total. As the weeks rolled by and the Union army reentered Virginia, it became clear that the Confederacy had suffered a serious defeat at Gettysburg. As the press began to openly speculate about Lee's leadership, the great general reflected on the campaign at his headquarters in Orange Courthouse, Virginia.

The modest Lee took the failure at Gettysburg very personally. In his letter to Davis, he wrote, "I have been prompted by these reflections more than once since my return from Pennsylvania to propose to Your Excellency the propriety of selecting another commander for this army.... No one is more aware than myself of my inability for the duties of my position. I cannot even accomplish what I myself desire.... I, therefore, in all sincerity, request your Excellency to take measure to supply my place."

Lee not only seriously questioned his ability to lead his army, he was also experiencing significant physical fatigue. He might also have sensed that Gettysburg was his last chance to win the war. Regardless, President Davis refused the request. He wrote, "To ask me to substitute you by someone ... more fit to command, or who would possess more of the confidence of the army ... is to demand an impossibility."






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Posted 09 August 2008 - 03:36 PM

Greetings!

August 9, 378


Romans routed at Adrianople
In one of the most decisive battles in history, a large Roman army under Valens, the Roman emperor of the East, is defeated by the Visigoths at the Battle of Adrianople in present-day Turkey. Two-thirds of the Roman army, including Emperor Valens himself, were overrun and slaughtered by the mounted barbarians.

Crowned in 264, Emperor Valens initiated warfare against the semi-civilized Visigoths in 364 and by 369 had defeated them. Visigoths under Fritigern were given permission to settle south of the Danube in the Roman Empire but, subjected to oppressive measures by Roman officials, they soon rose in revolt. In 378, Valens marched a Roman army against Fritigern, and 10 miles from Adrianople the Romans came upon the massed barbarians. As the Visigoth cavalry was off on a forging mission, Valens ordered a hasty attack on August 9. The Romans initially drove the barbarians back, but then the Visigoth cavalry suddenly returned, routing the Romans and forcing them into retreat. The horsemen then rode down and slaughtered the fleeing Roman infantry. Some 20,000 of 30,000 men were killed, including Emperor Valens.

The decisive Visigoth victory at the Battle of Adrianople left the Eastern Roman Empire nearly defenseless and established the supremacy of cavalry over infantry that would last for the next millennium. Emperor Valens was succeeded by Theodosius the Great, who struggled to repel the hordes of Visigoth barbarians plundering the Balkan Peninsula.





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#36 Kortoso

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Posted 09 August 2008 - 04:47 PM

Nagasaki. Japan, 1945.
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The "Fat Man" bomb killed an estimated 80,000 souls.

#37 PainBrush

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Posted 09 August 2008 - 10:27 PM

Nagasaki. Japan, 1945.

" ....what have you done ? "




"....your brothers blood cries out to me from the ground "

" You have a good point there,...put your helmet on & no-one will notice it ."
" Look for a long time at what pleases you... and longer still at what pains you "
So THIS is civilization ??!??!......

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~ FUTUE EOS SI NON CONCIPERE IOCULARUM ~


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Posted 10 August 2008 - 04:34 PM

Greetings!
I'll keep with the theme,....

August 10, 1945


Japan accepts Potsdam terms, agrees to unconditional surrender
On this day in 1945, just a day after the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan submits its acquiescence to the Potsdam Conference terms of unconditional surrender, as President Harry S. Truman orders a halt to atomic bombing.

Emperor Hirohito, having remained aloof from the daily decisions of prosecuting the war, rubber-stamping the decisions of his War Council, including the decision to bomb Pearl Harbor, finally felt compelled to do more. At the behest of two Cabinet members, the emperor summoned and presided over a special meeting of the Council and implored them to consider accepting the terms of the Potsdam Conference, which meant unconditional surrender. "It seems obvious that the nation is no longer able to wage war, and its ability to defend its own shores is doubtful." The Council had been split over the surrender terms; half the members wanted assurances that the emperor would maintain his hereditary and traditional role in a postwar Japan before surrender could be considered. But in light of the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, Nagasaki on August 9, and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, as well as the emperor's own request that the Council "bear the unbearable," it was agreed: Japan would surrender.

Tokyo released a message to its ambassadors in Switzerland and Sweden, which was then passed on to the Allies. The message formally accepted the Potsdam Declaration but included the proviso that "said Declaration does not comprise any demand which prejudices the prerogatives of His Majesty as sovereign ruler." When the message reached Washington, President Truman, unwilling to inflict any more suffering on the Japanese people, especially on "all those kids," ordered a halt to atomic bombing, He also wanted to know whether the stipulation regarding "His Majesty" was a deal breaker. Negotiations between Washington and Tokyo ensued. Meanwhile, savage fighting continued between Japan and the Soviet Union in Manchuria.





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#39 Spartan198

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Posted 11 August 2008 - 02:39 PM

Marcus Aurelius's intent was to return Rome to republic status. Obviously, the 'philosopher-emperor' failed.

Actually, that's not true. It was merely a plot device in the movie Gladiator, to reinforce Commodus as the film's "imperialist bad guy".

There's no historical basis for the idea that Marcus Aurelius wanted to restore the Roman Republic. By this stage in Roman history that idea was completely dead. Instead, contrary to the film, it seems to have been very much Marcus's intention that his son Commodus should succeed him as Commodus had been proclaimed joint emperor (co-Augustus) three years before Marcus died.
"What is good in life?... To crush your enemy, see him driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!" -- Conan of Cimmeria

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ ~ "Come and take them." -- Leonidas' reply when ordered by the Persian messenger to surrender his weapons before the Battle of the Thermopylae Pass.


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Posted 11 August 2008 - 06:00 PM

Greetings!

August 11, 1921


Alex Haley's birthday
Alex Haley, author of Roots and The Autobiography of Malcolm X is born on this day in Ithaca, New York.

Haley was raised in Henning, Tennessee, where his maternal grandparents lived. His grandmother frequently told him stories of his family's history. He graduated from high school at 15 and enlisted in the Coast Guard in 1939. He started writing to pass the time during long months at sea. He left the Coast Guard in 1959 and began writing for magazines. He interviewed Malcolm X for Playboy magazine and turned his series of interviews into the basis for his first book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. The book, published shortly after Malcolm's assassination, sold 6 million copies in hardcover.

Haley's next novel, Roots (1976), was a fictionalized account of his own family's history, traced through seven generations. The novel was translated into 37 languages and won a special Pulitzer Prize. The novel was turned into a 1977 miniseries that became the most-watched broadcast in TV history to that time, drawing an unprecedented 100 million viewers over eight days.

Haley did not write another novel for more than 10 years. In 1988, he published A Different Kind of Christmas, about the Underground Railroad.

Haley died on February 10, 1992.

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