Wait… Julie Stiles is only 27 today?That means she was just 21 when she played a CIA operative in The Bourne Identity in 2002?Surprising. Of course, only in Hollywood could crucial national security issues be put in the hands of a callow 21-year-old who… oh, wait.Stiles, as an aside, was born the same year the Beastie Boys were founded.
Lovely, warmhearted George Vecsey column today about Bob Sheppard, the Yankee Stadium announcer since 1951.Sheppard is cagey about his age, but Vecsey notes that he played football at St. John’s from 1928-32. (Wikipedia claims Sheppard was born in 1910.) Still, he just signed a two-year contract with the Yanks.
Russian space pioneer and superstud Yuri Gagarin died 40 years ago today.
“Choosing from the parachutes he had was like choosing whether to take a Cadillac or a Volkswagen to California… The one he didn’t use was padded and very good. The one he used would cut you in the crotch area when the parachute opened. It would have worked, but it wasn’t the best choice.”Skydiving instructor Earl Cossey, who packed the parachutes used by D.B.
A parachute that may have belonged to skyjacker D.B. Cooper has turned up in rural Washington state.The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that the parachute was uncovered in rural Clark County, where kids found the parachute while playing in a recently-plowed field.
“Since the publication of Repetition, I’ve gone to bookstores to sign books and there’s a crowd of only young people. No old people. Let’s put it this way: I was once fashionable. And when I was in fashion, nobody read my books.”-“Anti-novelist” Alain Robbe-Grillet in a juicy 2003 interview with Bookforum.
St. Catherine of Siena was born this day in 1347.She arrived about seven years after bawdy author Geoffrey Chaucer, who then outlived her by 20 years. Saint Catherine herself died at 33.There must be a saying to fit that juxtaposition.
Last month we noted the remarriage of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, four months after his divorce from Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz.
“Look: I believe in Him. It’s that simple and that complex. I believe in Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the God Man who came to earth, born as a tiny baby and then lived over thirty years in our midst. I believe in what we celebrate this week: the scandal of the cross and the miracle of the Resurrection.
Last week we mentioned Steve McQueen and his chase scene from Bullitt.
“Yes, Albany is a hotbed of furtive boom-chicka-boom.”The Washington Post, trying to get a handle on David Paterson’s first week as governor of New York.
“The new Dark Highland Green Bullitt… rides on five-spoke dark argent gray satin finished Euro-flange cast aluminum wheels featuring a polished machined lip that resemble early American-style mags. The special wheels are shod with ZR performance-rated rubber.”That’s The San Francisco Chronicle going all Euro-flange about a new replica of Steve McQueen’s Mustang from the 1968 movie Bullitt.
Scooter Libby has been disbarred due to his 2007 convictions for perjury and obstruction of justice.He can, however, apply for reinstatement in 2012.
The first lines from selected remembrances of Arthur C. Clarke, who died on Wednesday in Sri Lanka:”Arthur C. Clarke could claim to have inspired, among other things, the development of communications satellites and the space race. Yet he never drove a car.” -The Age of Melbourne
Movie hound Nick Clooney on the making of Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film Taxi Driver:Scorsese recruited Bernard Herrmann to write the musical score, even though the extraordinary composer-conductor was then terminally ill. At sixty-four, Mr. Herrmann had made his mark in radio, the concert stage, opera, and most notably, motion pictures. After a long stint at CBS — where he met a young Orson Welles — he began his movie music career at the top.
Philip Roth has hit the three-quarter-century mark.The author of Portnoy’s Complaint was born in 1933 — same year as Willie Nelson and Yoko Ono.
Delightful reminiscence of actor Raymond Burr, sent in by reader Susan Brown-Barbour:”I met Raymond Burr in 1976 in Landers, California at Gublers’ Orchids. I worked there as a laborer/fill in lead person. He was very much into orchids at this time, and came to check out 2 large greenhouses for possible leasing from the owners.
Here’s the full text of Barack Obama’s speech on Tuesday in Philadelphia. Courtesy of The Chicago Tribune.
“The problem with reincarnation is that it’s hard to imagine what the storage medium for past lives would be. Not to mention the input-output device. I hesitate to rule it out completely, but I’d need pretty definite proof.”-Arthur C. Clarke, 1999
Anthony Minghella, the Oscar-winning director of The English Patient, has died at age 54.Early reports listed no cause of death. The BBC now says that he “suffered a fatal haemorrhage in London days after having surgery for cancer of the tonsils and neck.”