Remembering Jimmy Buffett

James William Buffett (December 25, 1946 – September 1, 2023)

Jimmy Buffett was an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and businessman. He was best known for his music, which often portrays an “island escapism” lifestyle. Together with his Coral Reefer Band, Buffett recorded hit songs including “Margaritaville” (ranked 234th on the Recording Industry Association of America’s list of “Songs of the Century”) and “Come Monday”. He had a devoted base of fans known as “Parrotheads”.

Aside from his career in music, Buffett was also a bestselling author and was involved in two restaurant chains named after two of his best-known songs; he owned the Margaritaville Cafe restaurant chain and co-developed the now defunct Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant chain.

Buffett was one of the world’s richest musicians, with a net worth of $1 billion by 2023.

Buffett died from lymphoma on September 1, 2023, at the age of 76. The singer’s death was announced on his social media pages and on his website. In a statement released by the family, they said “Jimmy passed away peacefully on the night of September 1st surrounded by his family, friends, music and dogs. He lived his life like a song till the very last breath and will be missed beyond measure by so many.”

SR-71 ‘Blackbird’ Sets ‘Speed Over a Recognized Course’ record

SR-71

The SR-71 holds the “Speed Over a Recognized Course” record for flying from New York to London distance 3,508 miles (5,646 km), 1,435.587 miles per hour (2,310.353 km/h), and an elapsed time of 1 hour 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds, set on September 1, 1974 while flown by U.S. Air Force Pilot Maj. James V. Sullivan and Maj. Noel F. Widdifield, reconnaissance systems officer (RSO). This equates to an average velocity of about Mach 2.68, including deceleration for in-flight refueling. Peak speeds during this flight were probably closer to the declassified top speed of Mach 3.2+. For comparison, the best commercial Concorde flight time was 2 hours 52 minutes, and the Boeing 747 averages 6 hours 15 minutes.

Wikipedia Link

38 States…

PO’d Croc

Skynet became self-aware today…

Arctic fox rescued from iceberg

An Arctic fox generally isn’t part of a crab fishing boat’s bycatch, but one crew from southern Labrador managed just that last week.

Alan Russell of St. Lewis said his ship was about seven kilometres offshore when they spotted something on a nearby iceberg.

“We seen something on the ice. Wasn’t sure what it was,” Russell told CBC’s Labrador Morning. “So we got up closer to it. It was a little fox, Arctic fox. And he wasn’t very big. He was soaking wet, and the gulls was trying to pick at him.”

Read the rest here

Special Edition of Fahrenheit 451

This Special Edition of Fahrenheit 451 Can Only Be Read When It’s Heated

Read more over on Gizmodo here.

This special edition of Fahrenheit 451 is a conceptual art piece created by the French design collective Super Terrain.

How it Works: The book’s pages are initially completely black, screen-printed with a soot-black layer. When heat is applied (using a lighter, match, or heat gun), the black, heat-sensitive ink disappears to reveal the text underneath.

The “Burning” Effect: As the pages cool, they return to their blackened state, meaning the text is only readable when being actively heated.

Purpose: Developed in collaboration with the Charles Nypels Lab (Netherlands), this edition was designed to symbolize the destruction of knowledge and censorship described in the novel.

Prototype & Release: The prototype was unveiled in October 2017. Following viral attention, the collective created a limited, numbered edition.

This edition is often described as a “book that can only be read by setting it on fire,” mirroring the plot’s requirement that books be burned.

John Kotrides : The voice of my childhood.

RIP Peter Cullen

Wikipedia Article

Anniversary of Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins is a 1964 American musical fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Walt Disney, with songs written and composed by the Sherman Brothers. The screenplay is by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, based on P. L. Travers’s book series Mary Poppins. The film, which combines live-action and animation, stars Julie Andrews in her feature film debut as Mary Poppins, who visits a dysfunctional family in London and employs her unique brand of lifestyle to improve the family’s dynamic. Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson, and Glynis Johns are featured in supporting roles. The film was shot entirely at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, using painted London background scenes.

Wikipedia Link

Awesome article on Disney

Remembering Stevie Ray Vaughan…

Stevie Ray Vaughan, also known abbreviated as SRV, was an American musician, best known as the guitarist and frontman of the blues rock trio Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. Although his mainstream career spanned only seven years, he is considered one of the most influential musicians in the history of blues music, and one of the greatest guitarists of all time. He was the younger brother of guitarist Jimmie Vaughan.

On August 27, 1990, Vaughan and four others were killed in a helicopter crash in East Troy, Wisconsin, after performing with Double Trouble at Alpine Valley Music Theatre. An investigation concluded that the cause of the accident was pilot error. Vaughan’s music continued to achieve commercial success with several posthumous releases and has sold over 15 million albums in the United States alone. Rolling Stone has twice ranked him among the top twenty guitar players of all time. Vaughan was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, along with Double Trouble bandmates Chris Layton, Tommy Shannon, and Reese Wynans.

Wikipedia Article

RIP Tim Curry (Farewell Pennywise)

Timothy James Curry (April 19, 1946 – August 25, 2026)

Wikipedia Article

Sneaked One!

RIP Dolly Parton

Per CNN:

Dolly Rebecca Parton (January 19, 1946 – August 25, 2026)

Dolly Parton, who rose from humble beginnings to the greatest heights of American music and became one of the country’s most philanthropic, unifying and beloved stars, died Tuesday at her home in Nashville, according to a family statement. She was 80.

The statement, attributed to her nephew Bryan Seaver, said Parton died “peacefully.” A small, private service will be held for her close family, the statement added.

Parton had been open about various health issues in the last two years, and especially after her husband Carl Dean died in March 2025. “Back when my husband Carl was very sick — that was for a long time — and then when he passed, I didn’t take care of myself,” Parton said in a video to fans earlier this year. “So I let a lot of things go that I should have been taking care of.”

Wikipedia Article

Anniversary of the Wizard of Oz

From Wikipedia:

The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and distributed by Warner Bros. Family Entertainment. Widely considered to be one of the greatest films in cinema history, it is the best-known and most commercially successful adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Directed primarily by Victor Fleming (who left the production to take over the troubled Gone with the Wind), the film stars Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale alongside Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Bert Lahr.

Characterized by its legendary use of Technicolor (although not being the first to use it), fantasy storytelling, musical score, and memorable characters, the film has become an American pop culture icon. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but lost to Gone with the Wind, also directed by Fleming. It did win in two other categories: Best Original Song for “Over the Rainbow” and Best Original Score by Herbert Stothart. While the film was considered a critical success upon release in August 1939, it failed to make a profit for MGM until the 1949 re-release, earning only $3,017,000 on a $2,777,000 budget, not including promotional costs, which made it MGM’s most expensive production at that time.

The 1956 television broadcast premiere of the film on the CBS network reintroduced the film to the public; according to the Library of Congress, it is the most seen film in movie history. It was among the first 25 films that inaugurated the National Film Registry list in 1989. It is also one of the few films on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register. The film is among the top ten in the BFI (British Film Institute) list of 50 films to be seen by the age of 14.

The Wizard of Oz is the source of many quotes referenced in contemporary popular culture. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but others made uncredited contributions. The songs were written by Edgar “Yip” Harburg (lyrics) and Harold Arlen (music). The musical score and the incidental music were composed by Stothart.

And then there was one (ZZ Top)

For five decades, the band had consisted of vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard and bassist-vocalist Dusty Hill, until Hill’s death in 2021 and Beard’s death in (Aug 17) 2026.

Wikipedia Article

Swingin’

Kitty Tube

Small Kitten

Twin Mill