Category Archives: Because I Can

Don Williams, Country’s ‘Gentle Giant,’ Dead at 78

Don Williams (May 27, 1939 – September 8, 2017)

Don Williams, the Country Music Hall of Fame member whose imposing height and warm, reassuring voice earned him the nickname “Gentle Giant,” died Friday, September 8th after a short illness. An internationally popular country star, Williams recorded dozens of hit songs, including “Tulsa Time,” “Lord, I Hope This Day Is Good” and “It Must Be Love.” He was 78.

To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before…

Enterprise

On September 8, 1966, “The Man Trap” was first released upon the world. This, the first episode of one of the most famous TV Shows in history, Star Trek.

United States nicknamed ‘Uncle Sam’

On September 7, 1813, the United States gets its nickname, Uncle Sam. The name is linked to Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from Troy, New York, who supplied barrels of beef to the United States Army during the War of 1812. Wilson (1766-1854) stamped the barrels with “U.S.” for United States, but soldiers began referring to the grub as “Uncle Sam’s.” The local newspaper picked up on the story and Uncle Sam eventually gained widespread acceptance as the nickname for the U.S. federal government.

In the late 1860s and 1870s, political cartoonist Thomas Nast (1840-1902) began popularizing the image of Uncle Sam. Nast continued to evolve the image, eventually giving Sam the white beard and stars-and-stripes suit that are associated with the character today. The German-born Nast was also credited with creating the modern image of Santa Claus as well as coming up with the donkey as a symbol for the Democratic Party and the elephant as a symbol for the Republicans. Nast also famously lampooned the corruption of New York City’s Tammany Hall in his editorial cartoons and was, in part, responsible for the downfall of Tammany leader William Tweed.

Perhaps the most famous image of Uncle Sam was created by artist James Montgomery Flagg (1877-1960). In Flagg’s version, Uncle Sam wears a tall top hat and blue jacket and is pointing straight ahead at the viewer. During World War I, this portrait of Sam with the words “I Want You For The U.S. Army” was used as a recruiting poster. The image, which became immensely popular, was first used on the cover of Leslie’s Weekly in July 1916 with the title “What Are You Doing for Preparedness?” The poster was widely distributed and has subsequently been re-used numerous times with different captions.

In September 1961, the U.S. Congress recognized Samuel Wilson as “the progenitor of America’s national symbol of Uncle Sam.” Wilson died at age 88 in 1854, and was buried next to his wife Betsey Mann in the Oakwood Cemetery in Troy, New York, the town that calls itself “The Home of Uncle Sam.”

And my mid-life crisis begins!

Introducing the 2018 Kia Stinger GT:

Read more »

Happy Birthday, Google!

To use their own image:

Google Birthday Cake

On September 4, 1998, Google was founded!

PCWorld Article

Wikipedia Link

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

20th Anniversary of Princess Diana’s Death

Princess Diana

Diana, Princess of Wales (July 1, 1961 – August 31, 1997)

Wikipedia Link

Happy Birthday, Mr. Bond

Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born August 25, 1930) is an Oscar-winning Scottish film and stage actor who is best known as the original cinematic James Bond. His character’s catch phrase “Bond, James Bond” has become considerably famous.

Sean ConneryWikipedia Link

Advanced Useless Machine

and in St. Louis

Meanwhile, aboard the Space Station

Astronauts aboard the @Space_Station captured this amazing image of the Moon’s shadow over the U.S. during #SolarEclipse2017.

Total Solar Eclipse 1979

The Great American Eclipse

Sorry about the ads, was worth it to see this… 

[iframe width=”540″ height=”304″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no” src=http://www.courier-journal.com/videos/embed/103826344]

It will be the first total solar eclipse visible in the continental U.S. in 38 years (last one was in the 1979). The next total solar eclipse visible over the continental U.S. will be on April 8, 2024, which is 7 years away.

RIP Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis (March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017)

 

Jerry Lewis was an American actor, comedian, singer, film producer, film director, screenwriter and humanitarian. He is known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He and Dean Martin were partners as the hit popular comedy duo of Martin and Lewis. Following that success, he was a solo star in motion pictures, nightclubs, television shows, concerts, album recordings and musicals.

Lewis served as national chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Association and hosted the live Labor Day broadcast of the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon for 44 years. Lewis received several awards for lifetime achievements from the American Comedy Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Venice Film Festival, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Farewell “Nutty Professor”, you’ll always be remembered like the picture above.

Wikipedia Link

16 Weeks

RIP Elvis (40th anniversary)

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977)

Elvis Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is commonly known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the “King of Rock and Roll” or simply “the King”.

Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley moved to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family at the age of 13. He began his career there in 1954, working with Sun Records owner Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African American music to a wider audience. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was the most important popularizer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country and rhythm and blues. RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who went on to manage the singer for over two decades. Presley’s first RCA single, “Heartbreak Hotel”, released in January 1956, was a number-one hit. He became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll with a series of network television appearances and chart-topping records. His energized interpretations of songs, many from African American sources, and his uninhibited performance style made him enormously popular—and controversial. In November 1956, he made his film debut in Love Me Tender.

Drafted into military service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. He staged few concerts however, and guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood movies and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. In 1968, after seven years away from the stage, he returned to live performance in a celebrated comeback television special that led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of profitable tours. In 1973 Presley staged the first concert broadcast globally via satellite, Aloha from Hawaii. Prescription drug abuse severely compromised his health, and he died suddenly in 1977 at the age of 42.

Presley is regarded as one of the most important figures of 20th-century popular culture. He had a versatile voice and unusually wide success encompassing many genres, including country, pop ballads, gospel, and blues. He is the best-selling solo artist in the history of popular music. Nominated for 14 competitive Grammys, he won three, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36. He has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame.

Petty Neighbor?

Some people like to develop close relationships with their neighbors so they can feel like they’re part of a tight knit community, others (like myself) will be very nice to their neighbors but don’t really feel the need to be friends.

And then there are those a-holes who pick fights with all of their neighbors, disrupt and disturb the neighborhood and give their neighbors hell until the situation turns into a full blown feud.

But in this case the feud all started because Cindy & Brian Zechenelly built a garage apartment on their Clallam County, Washington property then painted the garage purple, which their anal-retentive neighbors claim is lowering the value of their homes.

So rather than minding their own business and leaving the Zechenelly’s alone neighbor Brian Juel decided to mow the word “A-HOLE” into the grass so it could be seen and photographed by Google Earth.

So who’s the real a-hole here- the neighbor who dared to be free with color on their own property, or the neighbor so angry about a purple garage they had to resort to petty name calling via yard work?

Watch a rope of molten steel barely miss a worker

 

In steelworker parlance, a cobble is a bit of steel that catches on a roller during manufacturing.

Cobbles cause the molten steel coming out of the furnace to back up and snake wildly around. This guy was lucky to be uninjured after a close call with a cobble.

1976 Witchy Woman Jam!

https://youtu.be/0mel8Fvj7ys?list=RDLLqYfJxeIJs

RIP Glen Campbell

Glen Travis Campbell (April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, television host, and actor. He is best known for a series of hits in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting a music and comedy variety show called The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television, from January 1969 through June 1972.[2]

During his 50 years in show business, Campbell released more than 70 albums. He sold 45 million records and accumulated 12 RIAA gold albums, four platinum albums, and one double-platinum album. He placed a total of 80 different songs on either the Billboard Country Chart, Billboard Hot 100, or Adult Contemporary Chart, of which 29 made the top 10 and of which nine reached number one on at least one of those charts. Campbell’s hits include his recordings of John Hartford’s “Gentle on My Mind“; Jimmy Webb’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix“, “Wichita Lineman“, and “Galveston“; Larry Weiss’s “Rhinestone Cowboy“; and Allen Toussaint’s “Southern Nights“.

Campbell made history in 1967 by winning four Grammys in the country and pop categories. For “Gentle on My Mind”, he received two awards in country and western, “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” did the same in pop. Three of his early hits later won Grammy Hall of Fame Awards (2000, 2004, 2008), while Campbell himself won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He owns trophies for Male Vocalist of the Year from both the Country Music Association (CMA) and the Academy of Country Music (ACM), and took the CMA’s top award as 1968 Entertainer of the Year. Campbell appeared as a supporting role in the film True Grit (1969), which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. Campbell also sang the title song, which was nominated for an Academy Award.

Campbell died of Alzheimer’s disease in Nashville, Tennessee, on August 8, 2017, six years after his diagnosis.