7 March 2015

Birthdays
Justin Kelly b. 1992 (Lost Girl, Warehouse 13)
Mike Lobel b. 1984 (Suck, Zixx Level One)
Raquel Alessi b. 1983 (Ghost Rider)
Aaron Diaz b. 1982 (Dinoshark)
Audrey Marie Anderson b. 1975 (Arrow, The Walking Dead, Touch)
Karim Saleh b. 1978 (Iron Man 2, Highlander [TV], Deadly Nightmares)
Luke de Woolfson b. 1976 (Pirates of the Caribbean)
Tobias Menzies b. 1974 (Outlander [2014], Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, The Deep [TV], Fairy Tales [2008])
Jolie Jenkins b. 1974 (The X-Files, Psycho Beach Party)
Larry Bagby b. 1974 (Age of the Dragons, Buffy, Invasion Earth: The Aliens are Here)
Jenna Fischer b. 1974 (Apocalypse Slough, Slither [2006])
Peter Sarsgaard b. 1971 (Green Lantern)
Josh Stolberg b. 1971 (writer, Piranha 3D, Piranha 3DD, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show)
Matthew Vaughn b. 1971 (director, X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass, Stardust)
Rachel Weisz b. 1970 (Oz the Great and Powerful, The Mummy, Chain Reaction, Death Machine)
Jonathan Del Arco b. 1966 (Dollhouse, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Wanda Sikes b. 1964 (My Super Ex-Girlfriend)
Donna Murphy b. 1959 (Resurrection, Spider-Man 2, The Astronaut’s Wife, Star Trek: Insurrection)
Nick Searcy b. 1959 (From the Earth to the Moon, American Gothic, Seven Days, Early Edition, Roswell [TV movie], Black Magic)
Rik Mayall b. 1958 died 9 June 2014 (Errors of the Human Body, Merlin: The Return, Drop Dead Fred, Whoops Apocalypse, Shock Treatment, An American Werewolf in London)
Bryan Cranston b. 1956 (Godzilla [2014], Total Recall [2012], John Carter, Contagion, Fallen, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, The X-Files, From the Earth to the Moon, Babylon 5, The Flash, The Return of the Six-Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman)
Donna Loren b. 1947 (Batman)
John Heard b. 1945 (Sharknado, Locusts, Battlestar Galactica, Big, C.H.U.D., Cat People)
Elizabeth Moon b. 1945 (won 2004 Nebula for The Speed of Dark)
Daniel J. Travanti b. 1940 (Poltergeist: The Legacy, The Wasp Woman [TV], Millennium [1989], Lost in Space, Captain Nice)
Gray Morrow b. 1934 died 6 November 2001 (illustrator)
James Broderick b. 1927 died 1 November 1982 (Twilight Zone)
Alan Sues b. 1926 died 1 December 2011 (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Time Express, Twilight Zone)
Eleanor Summerfield b. 1921 died 13 July 2001 (Hammer House of Horror, The Watcher in the Woods, UFO, A Christmas Carol [1951])

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. We have several actors who are TV stars, notably Daniel J. Travanti and Bryan Cranston, but I am hard pressed to say they have that iconic role in a genre production. In previous years, the Picture Slot was given to Donna Murphy from Star Trek: Insurrection and Rachel Weisz from Oz the Great and Powerful. This year, because I'm itching for more Game of Thrones, it's Tobias Menzies as Catelyn Stark's younger brother Edmure Tully. As a fan of the HBO show Rome, I always liked seeing actors from that show on Game of Thrones, but I have to say Menzies, Ciaran Hinds and Indira Varma had better roles on the earlier series. 

2. The hard to spot Canadians. Our youngest birthday boys, Justin Kelly and Mike Lobel, are both Canadians, but they did more work on the DeGrassi side of Canadian show business.

Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
 

Predictor: Shelby M. Cullom (1829-1914), Illinois politician

Prediction: In my judgment, government ownership of the railways and telegraphs would be the most serious blunder this country could make.

Reality: In the United States, we have some nationalization of the railroads with Amtrak, but the telegraphs stayed privately held and even the telephone system which overtook the telegraph in usefulness was held in private hands. In the 1890s, it was hard to see how the railroads' power would ever be usurped, but cars and trucks have done that for the most part and they have done it on a publicly owned highway system.
 

Never to be Forgotten: Lynn Borden 1939-2015 Lynn Borden, an attractive blonde who had her heyday in the 1960s and 1970s, has died at the age of 77 after a long illness. A runner-up in 1957 in the Miss America pageant, she was a regular on the sitcom Hazel for one season and had roles in Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice and Dirty Mary Crazy Larry. She is remembered here for her one role in a genre production in the 1972 movie Frogs, starring Ray Milland and Sam Elliott. I debated whether Ms. Borden's one role in a movie I never say merited inclusion, but looking it up online, her character was eaten by a snapping turtle. How can we possibly forget that?

Eagle eyed reader Ken Houghton also notes she was in The Fantastic Journey, which has a kraken and everything. Clearly, she belongs here.

Best wishes to the family and friends of Lynn Borden. She is never to be forgotten.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

It's our pal Heinlein's turn again to gaze into his crystal ball.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!