Saturday, February 21, 2015

21 February 2015

Birthdays
Sophie Turner b. 1996 (X-Men: Apocalypse, Mary Shelley’s Monster, Game of Thrones)
Corbin Bleu b. 1989 (Galaxy Quest, Mystery Men)
Scout Taylor-Compton b. 1989 (Halloween I & II [2007 & 2009], Charmed)
Ashley Greene b. 1987 (Twilight Saga, Radio Free Albemuth)
Ellen Page b. 1987 (X-Men: Days of Future Past, Inception, X-Men: The Last Stand, ReGenesis)
Burgess Abernethy b. 1987 (H2O: Just Add Water, BeastMaster)
Tuppence Middleton b. 198 7 (Jupiter Ascending, Sense8, Sinbad [TV])
Jennifer Love Hewitt b. 1979 (A Christmas Carol: A Musical, Munchie)
Travis Schiffner b. 1976 (Jeepers Creepers II)
Christopher Yost b. 1973 (writer, Thor: The Dark World, Max Steel)
William Baldwin b. 1963 (Virus, Flatliners)
Christopher Atkins b. 1961 (Dark Realm, Dracula Rising)
Kim Coates b. 1958 (Mutant World, Robosapien: Rebooted, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Smallville, The Dresden Files, Skinwalkers, Thoughtcrimes, Earth: Final Conflict, Battlefield Earth, NightMan, Total Recall 2070, Poltergeist: The Legacy, Waterworld, RoboCop [TV], Innocent Blood, Dracula: the Series, Red Blooded American Girl, War of the Worlds [TV])
Kelsey Grammer b. 1955 (Transformers: Age of Extinction, X-Men, A Christmas Carol: The Musical, Star Trek: The Next Generation)
William Petersen b. 1953 (Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Twilight Zone [1986])
Christine Ebersole b. 1953 (American Horror Story, My Favorite Martian [1999], Ghost Dad, Mac and Me)
Mimi Kuzyk b. 1952 (The Day After Tomorrow, The Time Shifters, Total Recall 2070, Poltergeist: The Legacy, Seaquest 2032, The Ray Bradbury Theatre, Quantum Leap)
Larry Drake b. 1950 (Gryphon, Firefly, Stargate SG-1, Timequest, Star Trek: Voyager, Prey, Darkman I and II)
Frank Brunner b. 1949 (illustrator)
Anthony Daniels b. 1946 (Star Wars, I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle)
Alan Rickman b. 1946 (Harry Potter, Galaxy Quest, Alice in Wonderland [2010], The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Dogma, Truly Madly Deeply)
Kitty Winn b. 1944 (The Exorcist I and II)
Richard Beymer b. 1939 (The X-Files, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
Gary Lockwood b. 1937 (2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek, Dark Skies, Superboy, The Bionic Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Earth II, The Magic Sword)
Rue McClanahan b. 1934 died 3 June 2010 (Wonderfalls, Starship Troopers, The Wickedest Witch, Small & Frye, Topper [TV movie])
George Mitchell b. 1905 died 18 January 1972 (The Andromeda Strain, Land of the Giants, The Time Tunnel, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Twilight Zone, Invasion of the Animal People)
Celia Lovsky b. 1897 died 12 October 1979 (Soylent Green, Star Trek, Twilight Zone)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. This is a very good birthday list. I didn't know about that careers of everyone listed here before I did my morning research, but I did know a heck of a lot of them. Previous Picture Slotters are Celia Lovsky as T'Pau and Alan Rickman as Snape, though I might have used Rickman as Alexander Dane instead and it would still be iconic. That still leaves a bunch of great choices, including Gary Lockwood from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ellen Page from X-Men and of course Anthony Daniels as C-3P0. I'm somewhat embarrassed for not choosing Mr. Daniels, but instead we have a picture of Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark because I am jonesing for new Game of Thrones this time of year and I am a huge sucker for tall redheads with high cheekbones.

Sue me. (Seriously, if Mr. Daniels wants to sue, I'm willing to come to a settlement.)

2. The Canadians amongst us. You might have been able to guess Kim Coates, a scary looking Oh That Guy, was Canadian, but there's a lot of work in movies and not all of them produced in Canada. The other two Canucks are much harder to spot. Mimi Kuzyk is mainly a TV actress and got her first big break on Hill Street Blues, though some might say her first big break was getting out of the frozen hellhole known as Winnipeg. Ellen Page is a movie star and good on her, so she's not waiting around for a guest shot on Supernatural.

3. Nepotism... not so much. Tuppence Middleton. Strange first name, oddly familiar last name. She is British, but not related to Kate Middleton. Corbin Bleu is a working actor, as is his dad David Reivers. I would venture to say he is not trading off his father's fame because his father isn't a household name.

4. The Guy at the Door and MST3K. Regular readers will know I feel a little awkward pointing it out when a list has an age cut-off between the living and the dead, but it just means that no one died particularly young or no one alive is remarkably old. Today, it means Gary Lockwood is The Guy at the Door, the oldest living person on this somewhat random list of artists and everyone younger than him is still with us. I feel bad when the person who has this designation is iconic and I don't use them, but yet again, let me point out a tall redhead with high cheekbones as my defense. Mr. Lockwood was also in The Magic Sword, which means we get to use the MST3K label today.

Many happy returns to all the living, most notably Gary Lockwood, on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
 
Predictor: Ignatius Donnelly (1831-1901), politician and author, making predictions about 1993 in honor of the 1893 Columbian Exhibition in Chicago.

Prediction: It is very evident that the time is not far distant when the people will repossess themselves of the iron highways... If the state is justified in taking charge of the mails, it is equally justified in taking change of the this aerial communication carried on the wings of the lightning... Gold and silver will be overthrown by an international paper money which all the wealth of the world would back up and sustain legal tender among all nations. This paper money would be increased in precise ratio to the increase in population or wealth of the world. 

Reality: We have already been introduced to Mr. Donnelly through his novel Caesar's Column, a racist rip-off of Edward Bellamy's big speculative hit Looking Backward: 2000-1888. In that, Donnelly advances the picture of a future ruined by rich Jews and a revolution just as bad because Jews run that, too.

I just gleaned the predictions from Donnelly's very long four pages of puffery. Honestly, this guy takes five minutes to clear his throat. He is wrong about the government takeover of the railroads and telegraphs. They were allowed to grow, but they have been overtaken and their monopolies brought down to earth by other technologies that would have been very hard to guess in 1893. As for going off the gold and silver standards, he gets that right, but we don't truly have a single international money system just yet. As for his "increase by precise ratio", is it tied to wealth or population? This reminds me John Von Neumann's great quote "There is no point in being precise when you don't know what you are talking about."

Looking one day ahead...  INTO THE FUTURE!

Another futuristic guess from our pal Robert A. Heinlein.


Join us then...  IN THE FUTURE!

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