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Today is the Spring Equinox, the end of Winter, and the beginning-or renewal of the growing season.





Today In History~

March 21
1826 - The Rensselaer School in Troy, New York was incorporated. The school, known today as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, became the first engineering college in the United States. Remember this when crossing over a bridge today...

1868 - The first club for professional women was formed in New York City by writer, Jennie June Croly. The club was called Sorosos.

1925 - The voice of Lowell Thomas was first heard on radio. Thomas was heard talking about “Man’s first flight around the world,” on KDKA in Pittsburgh, PA.

1941 - Singer Paula Kelly joined Glenn Miller’s band. Her husband, also a part of the Miller organization, was one of the four singing Modernaires.

1946 - The Los Angeles Rams signed Kenny Washington, the first black player to join a National Football League team since 1933.

1956 - The 28th Academy Awards were celebrated at the RKO Pantages Theater, Los Angeles, California. Hosting the festivities were comedian/actor/singer/producer Jerry Lewis in Hollywood, plus actress Claudette Colbert and writer/producer/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz in New York City. Marty, produced by Harold Hecht, was a big winner: Best Picture; Best Director (Delbert Mann); Best Actor (Ernest Borgnine); and Best Writing/Screenplay (Paddy Chayefsky). Best Actress was Anna Magnani for The Rose Tattoo; Best Supporting Actor was Jack Lemmon for Mister Roberts; Best Supporting Actress was Jo Van Fleet for East of Eden; and Best Music/Song to Sammy Fain (music), Paul Francis Webster (lyrics) for Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing from Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing. 1955 was a great year for other great movies, too (some Oscar winners, some not): Picnic; Bad Day at Black Rock; The Man with the Golden Arm; Rebel Without a Cause; Pete Kelly’s Blues; The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell; The Seven Little Foys; Blackboard Jungle; To Catch a Thief; and Oklahoma!, The Bridges at Toko-Ri to name a few...

1957 - Shirley Booth made her TV acting debut in The Hostess with the Mostest on Playhouse 90 on CBS.

1961 - The Beatles made their debut in an appearance at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, where they became regulars in a matter of months.

1963 - A year after opening in the Broadway show, I Can Get It for You Wholesale, Elliott Gould and Barbra Streisand tied the matrimonial knot.

1970 - The Beatles established a new record. Let It Be entered the Billboard chart at number six. This was the highest debuting position ever for a record. Let It Be reached number two a week later and made it to the top spot on April 11, overshadowing Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge over Troubled Water.

1985 - Boy George said he would never marry, settle down, or become a father because he was “too eccentric!” He made this revealing statement in, what else? Women’s World magazine!

1994 - Actress/Comedienne Whoopi Goldberg hosted the 66th Annual Academy Awards show at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The film that was created so the world would never forget the Holocaust -- the inhumanity of mankind to other humans -- received the highest honors this evening. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) awarded Schindler’s List, nominated in no less than 12 categories, with seven Oscars: beginning with Best Writing/Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Stephen Zaillian); Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Allan Starski, Ewa Braun); Best Cinematography (Janusz Kaminski); Best Film Editing (Michael Kahn); Best Music/Original Score (John Williams); Best Director (Steven Spielberg); and culminating with Best Picture (Producers Steven Spielberg, Gerald R. Molen and Branko Lustig). Schindler’s List was not the only film to receive multiple golden statuettes. Philadelphia (nominated five times) scored two awards, Best Actor (Tom Hanks) and Best Music/Song, Streets of Philadelphia to Bruce Springsteen. The Piano (nominated in eight categories) won both Best Actress (Holly Hunter)and Best Supporting Actress (Anna Paquin), and Best Writing/Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Jane Campion); Jurassic Park received the Best Sound award (Gary Summers, Gary Rydstrom, Shawn Murphy, Ron Judkins), the Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing award (Gary Rydstrom, Richard Hymns), and the Best Effects, Visual Effects award (Dennis Muren, Stan Winston, Phil Tippett, Michael Lantieri). Tommy Lee Jones picked up the Best Supporting Actor award for The Fugitive, a film nominated in seven categories.

1999 - Everything was beautiful at the 71st Annual Academy Awards ceremony at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. There were beautiful people, gowns, and the beautiful words, “The Oscar goes to...” Hosting the festivities which had moved from the traditional Monday night to Sunday evening, was comedienne Whoopi Goldberg, who modeled the beautiful, and sometimes bizarre, costumes from the movies nominated in the Best Costume Design category. (And the Oscar went to Sandy Powell for Shakespeare in Love.) A beautiful lady, Gwyneth Paltrow, emotionally accepted the Best Actress Oscar for her role in Shakespeare in Love. It was a beautiful night for the film with 13 nominations and seven wins including the upset win of Best Picture of the 1998 year; Best Supporting Actress (Dame Judi Dench); Best Writing/Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Marc Norman, Tom Stoppard); Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Martin Childs, Jill Quertier); and Best Music/Original Musical or Comedy Score (Stephen Warbeck). This was the first time in nine years that the film that won Best Picture did not win for Best Director. Steven Spielberg was the winning director for Saving Private Ryan (which also won four more of the golden statuettes). It was a beautiful moment when the Best Supporting Actor Oscar was awarded to James Coburn (Affliction), his first Academy Award nomination in over 70 films. But the most beautiful moment/s of the long (Oscar's longest to date) evening was when Sophia Loren said, “and the Oscar goes to Roberto!” (Best Actor: La Vita è bella - Roberto Benigni). In plain English, Life is Beautiful. Roberto Benigni was the first actor in a foreign language film to receive an Oscar. Coincidentally, Ms. Loren had been the first actress to be so honored. Benigni had received an Oscar earlier in the evening for Best Foreign Film (Life is Beautiful) when he pirouetted on top of seat backs, hopping and dancing to the stage. Roberto Benigni truly made the evening bella, bella!


Music For The Day~



Click on the picture-Beethoven's 6th Symphony( Pastoral) from Fantasia(Disney-1940)


Quote For The Day~
Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider





Chuckle For The Day~





Picture For The Day~






Spring flowers



Have a great day, Ranters!

Great way to start the day...and Spring...Scout! Thanks!

Frost out there this morning, but the past week was spring-like...which we usually don't get until May to June. Temps in the 50's and 60's, windows open, jackets off. Nice!

Time to get ready to go to work. Oh, well.

The rain is just beginning to taper off. I expected rain the entire day. I ran some early morning errands, because I didn't want to do a FL Panhandle version of a Nantucket sleigh ride later today on these dirt road. Although the mud isn't as slippery as ice, it can still be a problem Spring is finally making its appearance. The azalea buds are just beginning to bloom and I've noticed some action with the wisteria as well.

Warm here.
Yaaaa....I love it.

I liked the rite of spring ballet, Scout. The cute animals too.
Nice way to start the day.

From yesterday...
I heard this morning he got 29 right and 11 wrong.
Our girls pulled it off.(our boys didn't get in)
Of course as far as I know he's not following the girls.

Morning everybody!

spring has sprung. With snow.

Thanks Scoutgal for a lovely beginning of the day. It is always difficult to tell which season we are in here, but the trees are flowering, plants blooming, and the wild parrots are screeching, so I guess it is Spring.

Just how different are commercials in the UK?

If anyone does make a Mobius strip, (See today's raging rant from the church of ineffable stupidity) try cutting it in half along the long axis. You end up with two Mobius strips.
Neat.

It will be 82 in the desert today, perfect as far as we are concerned. Later today we are going to a Cactus League game to watch the Cubs and the Reds.

Slipped~Mr. Scoutgal just got back from 3 days in your lovely desert watching the Dodgers at Spring Training. He said that the weather was pretty good!

Our guys lost to Syracuse the other night...but they put on a good show, considering they were the 16th seed and Syracuse was #1. Our Marqus Blakely gets to be in the shoot-out at the Final Four.


The girls' team defeated Wisconsin this afternoon, giving UVM its first NCAA Tournament win in the history of the school. Nice job!