Let us take things as we find them: let us not attempt to distort them into what they are not. We cannot make facts. All our wishing cannot change them. We must use them. – John Henry Cardinal Newman, 1801-1890
A minute’s success pays the failure of years. – Robert Browning, 1812-1889
None but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear. – Ferdinand Foch, 1851-1929
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Please be aware we have a general strike in Spain today. It is unsure how strongly this event will be supported but news is now available of flights disrupted at Alicante and other airports. Story
We enjoyed another good night in the Cat’s Whiskers in Albir. The whole point of the evening is to provide a venue where, once every week, people can enjoy some old songs and some old memories. It was very nice to meet up with quite a few of my old listeners from OCI who had come to see me last night. I also met a couple from Liverpool who were able to remember some of the old folk songs sung around the Mersey in the 60s. We had a great tradition with the Spinners at Gregson’s Well running at the same time as the Cavern and the Iron Door to name just two places where you could enjoy your different kinds of music.
The Cavern didn’t only have beat groups and had started as a Jazz venue influenced by Lonnie Donegan amongst others. The change to Merseybeat was over many months and there were quite a few arguments with the jazz purists before the Beatles and others were allowed to play there. Ultimately, money talks and it was always the new trend that would bring in the m oney to pay the bills. Certain groups, notably the Swinging Blue Jeans, were already playing Jazz and they turned their attentions to Beat music as the trends demanded.
We had a tremendous amount of rain yesterday afternoon then the sky cleared and we had a pleasant evening. It did seem to go dark a lot earlier. Let’s get the forecast….
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 27° C | 17° C
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27° C | 17° C
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28° C | 17° C
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28° C | 18° C
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28° C | 19° C
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A farmer named Sid was overseeing his stock in a remote moorland pasture in North Yorkshire when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced toward him out of a cloud of dust. The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the farmer, “If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, Will you give me a calf?”
Sid looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing stock and calmly answers, “Sure, why not?”
The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASApage on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany .
Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored.
He then accesses an MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry
and, after a few minutes, receives a response. Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer, turns to the farmer and says, “You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.”
“That’s right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves,” says Sid.
He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on with amusement as the young man stuffs it into the back of his car.
Then Sid says to the young man, “Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?”
The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, “Okay, why not?”
“You’re a Member of Parliament for our Government”, says Sid. “Wow! That’s correct,” says the yuppie, “but how did you guess that?” “No guessing required.” answered the farmer. “You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used millions of pounds worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don’t know a thing about how working people make a living -or about cows, for that matter. This is a herd of sheep. …now give me back my dog!————————————————————————–
Word of the Day
la necedad neh-seh-dad’ (noun)
stupidity, foolishness, crassness
EXAMPLES
Es una necedad lo que dijo. – It’s sheer stupidity what she said.
Los niños decían necedades durante toda la película. – The children talked foolishness throughout the movie.
For more information and examples, visit the SpanishDict.com entry for la necedad.
The known benefits of taking vitamin C now include mood improvement, according to a new study by researchers from Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital (JGH). In a double-blind clinical trial, patients at the hospital experienced a significant and rapid improvement in their moods shortly after taking vitamin C.
Published in the journal Nutrition, the study adds to the growing body of evidence about the vital role vitamin C plays in regulating hormone levels, particularly those like Serotonin that affect mental and emotional well-being. And according to researchers, most people have dismally inadequate intake of the vital nutrient.
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The phenomenal power of the human mind
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid! Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Yaeh, and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt.
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Events
1758 – England’s Admiral Horatio Nelson was born.
1789 – A regular army was established by the U.S. War Department with several hundred men.
1829 – The first public appearance by London’s re-organized police force was met with jeers from political opponents. The force became known as Scotland Yard.
1940 – The radio quiz show “Double or Nothing” debuted on the Mutual Radio Network.
1943 – U.S. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marchal Pietro Badoglio signed an armistice aboard the British ship Nelson.
1962 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy nationalized the Mississippi National guard in response to city officials defying federal court orders. The orders had been to enroll James Meredith at the University of Mississippi.
1967 – The International Monetary Fund reformed monetary systems around the world.
1977 – Eva Shain became the first woman to officiate a heavyweight title boxing match. About 70 million people watched Muhammad Ali defeat Ernie Shavers on NBC-TV.
1978 – Pope John Paul I was found dead after only one month of serving as pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
1984 – Elizabeth Taylor was voted to be the world’s most beautiful woman in a Louis Harris poll. Taylor was at the time in the Betty Ford Clinic overcoming a weight problem.
1988 – The space shuttle Discovery took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. It was the first manned space flight since the Challenger disaster.
1990 – “Millie’s Book” by First Lady Barbara Bush was the best-selling non-fiction book in the U.S.
1992 – Magic Johnson announced that he was returning to professional basketball. The comeback ended the following November.
1993 – Bosnia’s parliament voted overwhelmingly to reject an international peace plan unless Bosnian Serbs returned land that had been taken by force.
1994 – The U.S. House voted to end the practice of lobbyist buying meals and entertainment for members of Congress.
1995 – Three U.S. servicemen were indicted on rape charges concerning a 12-year-old Okinawan girl. The men were handed over to Japanese authorities.
1998 – Hasbro announced plans to introduce an action figure of retired U.S. General Colin Powell.
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Music Stuff September 29th
1956, Bill Haley had five songs in the UK Top 30
1960, Ricky Valance was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Tell Laura I Love Her’, making him the first Welsh singer to top the charts, and a One-hit Wonder.
1963, the first night of a 30 date UK tour featuring The Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley, The Rolling Stones, Mickie Most and The Flintstones kicked off at the New Vic, London.
1967, The Small Faces appeared at the Royal in Tottenham, London, admission was 7/6.
1967, Working at Abbey Road in London, The Beatles mixed the new John Lennon song ‘I Am the Walrus’ which included the sound of a radio being tuned through numerous stations, coming to rest on a BBC production of William Shakespeare’s “King Lear”. John (playing organ) and Paul (playing bass), then completed ‘Your Mother Should Know’.
1971, Gilbert O’Sullivan made his live debut at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Also on the bill, Sweet, Dave Edmunds Rockpile and Ashton Gardner & Dyke.
1976, Enjoying his own birthday celebrations singer Jerry Lee Lewis accidentally shot his bass player Norman Owens in the chest. Lewis had been blasting holes in an office door. Owens survived but sued his boss.
1979, Boney M scored their second UK No.1 album with ‘Oceans Of Fantasy’.
1979, The Police – first UK No.1 ‘Message In A Bottle’ .
1989, While travelling on his motorbike from Los Angeles, Bruce Springsteen called in at Matt’s Saloon in Prescott, Arizona and jammed with the house band for an hour. He also donated $100,000 to a barmaid’s hospital bill.
1990, Maria McKee UK No.1-’Show Me Heaven’
1992, American singer, songwriter Paul Jabara died from lymphoma related to AIDS at the age of 44. He wrote Donna Summer’s Oscar and Grammy Award-winning hit ‘Last Dance’ and Barbra Streisand’s ‘The Main Event/Fight’ and co-wrote the Weather Girls hit, ‘It’s Raining Men’ with Paul Shaffer.
1999, receivers were called in to concert promoter Harvey Goldsmith’s empire after suffering losses on a series of shows. Goldsmith was awarded the MBE after his work on Live Aid.
1999, The Manic Street Preachers were given a bill for £28.000 after smashing up equipment during their show at Scotland’s T In The Park festival.
2002, UK Pop Idol winners Will Young and Gareth Gates No.1 on the UK singles chart with their version of The Beatles ‘The Long And Winding Road.’
2002, ‘Elvis Presley 30 No1 Hits’ No.1 on the UK album chart.
2004, Keith Moon’s five-piece drum kit, custom-made for The Who drummer in 1968, sold for £120,000 pounds in London to an American collector, setting a world auction record for a set of drums.
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Birthday Boys and Girls September 29th
1907, Gene Autry, America’s singing cowboy.
1935, Jerry Lee Lewis, US singer, keyboards,
1939, Tommy Boyce, singer, songwriter. 1968 US No 8 single with Bobby Hart, ‘I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonite’. Wrote ‘Last Train To Clarksville’, ‘I’m Not Your Stepping Stone’ and ‘Scooby-Doo Where Are You.’ Sold over 40m record.
1943, Manuel Fernandez, Los Bravos, (1966 UK No.2 & US No.4 single ‘Black Is Black’). First Spanish rock band to have a UK & US hit single
Music Source 1 music source 2 music source 3
