Hollywoodland

Hah! That’s a likely story. *g*

Well, last week we lost Mitch Miller and now we’ve lost two more celebrities. Academy award winning actress Patricia Neal (who died at age 84 from lung cancer) and mime Lorene Yarnell (of Shields and Yarnell (who died at age 66 from a brain aneurysm).

Today in history:

• 1936 – Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the Summer Olympic Games (held in Berlin that year) becoming the first American to win four medals in one Olympiad. I’m sure this annoyed Hitler and his cronies to no end. *g*

• 1944 – The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council released posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time. “Only YOU can prevent forest fires.” I had a Smokey Bear stuffed toy when I was a kid. Actually, I still have him but he’s packed away.

Tonight on TV, we have new episodes of American Pickers and Rizzoli and Isles.

Reading: Now I’m reading an ebook called The Mardi Gras Mystery by H. Bedford-Jones which was written in 1921.

I’m not going to be witty or chatty here today. While everything was fine when I first started this morning, I had to reboot to get one program to stop (the force stop wouldn’t work on it) and when everything came back up all my software had apparently reverted to their original settings. *sigh*

I do have to mention the passing of the legendary Mitch Miller. He died Saturday at the age of 99.

Tonight on TV, we have Wipeout, Warehouse 13 (it’s part one of the crossover with Eureka), White Collar and Memphis Beat.

Reading: I decided to stop reading The Secret Adversary in lieu of a favorite children’s book Maida’s Little Shop by Inez Haynes Irwin. It was written in 1909.

LOL!!! Now there’s an excuse.

Happy birthday to me! I’m trying not to think about how old I am. *g*

Owner of the New York Yankees, George Steinbrenner passed away this morning after a heart attack.

Today in history:

• 1919 – The British airship R34 landed in Norfolk, England. It took 182 hours to fly across the Atlantic. Not a quick flight.

• 1923 – The Hollywood Sign was officially dedicated in the hills above Los Angeles. It originally read “Hollywoodland ” (see the picture in my banner above *g*) but the last four letters were dropped after renovation in 1949.

My fellow birthday babies today are Bob Crane, Patrick Stewart (make it so!), Robert Forster, Harrison Ford (I hate snakes!), Cheech Marin, and Didi Conn. Whew!

Tuesday night has suddenly become a busy TV night again. New episodes of Wipeout and Warehouse 13 plus the season premiere of White Collar and the series premiere of Covert Affairs. Oh and a new episode of Memphis Beat. I’m sort of hoping I don’t like Covert Affairs because I already have too many shows to watch as it is.

Reading: Still reading Daughter of Magic. It’s a fun series.