10 April 2014

 Birthdays
AJ Michalka b. 1991 (Super 8, Birds of Prey)
Alex Pettyfer b. 1990 (In Time, Beastly, I Am Number Four)
Haley Joel Osment b. 1988 (A.I. Artificial Intellignce, The Sixth Sense)
Jamie Renee Smith b. 1987 (True Blood, VR.5, Dark Skies)
Mandy Moore b. 1984 (Southland Tales)
Ryan Merriman b. 1983 (Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader, Final Destination 3, The Ring Two, Veritas: The Quest, Smallville, Taken, Halloween: Resurrection, Rocket’s Red Glare)
Jamie Chung b. 1983 (Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Once Upon a Time, Sucker Punch)
Charlie Hunnam b. 1980 (Pacific Rim, Children of Men)Orlando Jones b. 1968 (Sleepy Hollow, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, Pushing Daisies, Primeval, The Time Machine, Evolution, Bedazzled)
Brad William Henke b. 1966 (Pacific Rim, Grimm, Lost)
Jeb Stuart Adams b, 1961 (They Live, Once Bitten)
Peter MacNicol b. 1954 (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Battleship, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, Baby Geniuses, Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Addams Family Values, Ghostbusters II, Dragonslayer)
Jim Burns b. 1948 (artist)
Hari Rhodes b. 1932 (The Powers of Matthew Star, Beyond Westworld, The Bionic Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Earth II, The Satan Bug)
Max Von Sydow b. 1929 (Branded, The Wolfman, Solomon Kane, Minority Report, What Dreams May Come, Judge Dredd, Needful Things, Until the End of the World, Dune, The Ice Pirates, Conan the Barbarian, Flash Gordon, The Exorcist II: The Heretic, The Exorcist)Lee Bergere b. 1924 died 321 Jan. 2007 (Time Trackers, Wonder Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Star Trek, Mr. Terrific, My Favorite Martian, The Addams Family, The Munsters)
Chuck Connors b. 1921 died 10 November 1992 (Werewolf, Day of Resurrection, The Six Million Dollar Man, Soylent Green, Adventures of Superman [TV])

Last year, the Picture Slot went to Max von Sydow. In terms of iconic roles, only Haley Joel Osment is his match on this list. There are a lot of Pretty Girl = Picture Slot choices, but instead I went with the artist Jim Burns, a very prolific artist of covers for books and magazines. Lee Bergere is one of those hard working actors who make good trivia questions for hardcore trivia geeks, but I wouldn't have recognized his name on imdb.com except that he played Lincoln on an episode of the original Star Trek.

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

In the year 2000!

Predictor: Lee de Forest, "The Father of Radio", predicting the world of 2000 in the 17 January 1960 edition of the Sunday supplement American Weekly.

Prediction: Passenger-carrying helicopters (helibuses) will take you up and over congestion, turning the sky into radar-controlled, multilevel highways which, incidentally, will be much less costly than those on the ground. Inexpensive private airplanes equipped for vertical take-off and landing also will fill the air.

Reality: Dr. de Forest did so well predicting communications breakthroughs, but when it comes to transportation, it's all flying cars and helibuses. I know it's our dream of the future, but the reality is getting airborne and getting back on the ground for short trips eats up a lot of fuel and takes a lot of training. De Forest has a few more predictions about the future of transportation and they all suffer from the twin sins of being run of the mill and completely innaccurate.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Speaking of inaccurate predictions, it's time to hear again from our Friday regular Paul Ehrlich.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!