Special Holidays…Sept. 24
Gallbladder Good Health Day..Sept.24
So why is the Gallbladder such a big deal? The Gallbladder is part of the digestive system and also helps keep the liver healthy. It’s small but mighty, and can pack a nasty punch if irritated. This organ is responsible for the production, storage and delivery of bile from the liver into the small intestines to help digest fat in the foods we eat. Sometimes material in the bile sticks together and forms pebble-like objects which are called gallstones. Fatty and greasy foods are not good for the Gallbladder.
Suggested healthy foods are fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains like oats and brown rice, lean meat, poultry and fish.
FYI
*The first successful surgical procedure to remove the gallbladder was performed in 1882 by German surgeon, Carl Lagenbuch, in Berlin, Germany.
*According to the Guinness Book of World Records a woman of 85 holds the record for the most gallstones removed at one time…23,530 in 1987.
So be kind to your gallbladder!
But if you have to ditch a “no-good” gallbladder, you can live without it! One would welcome a change in diet and lifestyle over the havoc that a mean gallbladder can bring.
National Bluebird of Happiness Day..Sept.24
Today we celebrate the Bluebird. The symbol of a bluebird is the sign of happiness and is found in many cultures. The Native American Navajo identify the Mountain Bluebird as a spirit in animal form associated with the rising sun. In Russian Fairy tales the blue bird is a symbol of hope. Chinese mythology viewed the bluebird as a messenger and often appeared with three legs as a symbol of the Sun.
Bluebirds in song:
*The lyrics “Somewhere, over the rainbow, bluebirds fly”, made famous by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” symbolizes hope and that the bad times will one day be over.
*James Baskett sang in Disney’s “Song of the South” the award winning song “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, …..Mr. Bluebird on my shoulder” pictures the symbol of cheer.
*Doris Day sang about “a bluebird on your windowsill bringing happy thoughts like sunshine after rain”
There are only three species of bluebirds in the United States. The Eastern Bluebird, the Mountain Bluebird and the Western Bluebird. There are lots of birds that are blue, but not all of them are bluebirds. Even bluebird eggs are blue.
Bluebirds love live mealworms, beetles, berries, grapes as well as sunflower seeds. They can spot caterpillars and insects in tall grass at 50 yards. Eastern Bluebird flocks are of 100 or more at one time. The Bluebird is the official bird of two states, Missouri and New York. The oldest recorded Eastern Bluebird was over 10 years old.
After watching KMET’s “Let Grandpa Speak” on Saturday morning late August we found out that…. for free (from the North American Bluebird Society) you can get plans for building your own bluebird house that will attract them into your backyard. Thanks Grandpa for giving us that information!!
Native American Day..Sept.24
In the state of California, Native American Day is celebrated on the fourth Friday of September and this year is the 54th Annual California Native American Day. California has one of the highest Native American population in the country. This holiday is not celebrated in all 50 states but is gaining popularity. This is a time to honor the cultures and contributions of the Native American.
Visit a reservation. Some welcome visitors and have museums to educate the public about their history and culture and some have engaging exhibits for all ages. There are nearly 100 separate reservations (or Rancherias) in California.
Or, you can read the works of Native American authors. Support native owned businesses and charities. Try making your own traditional Fry Bread or order at a Native American restaurant.
Check out ‘Pow-Wow ‘ events as they highlight Native American celebrations with traditional dining, singing and honoring their ancestors. The Morongo Band of Mission Indians will host their annual Thunder and Lighting Pow Wow this weekend, Sept.24-26 in Cabazon, CA to be held at the Morongo Casino Resort.
The last three classical composers we honored this month were influenced at one point in their career by Native American music and musical instruments.
Birthdays…Sept.24
Jacques Vallee..Sept.24, 1939
Jacques Vallee is a computer scientist, author, ufologist and astronomer. Vallee was born in France. He began his professional life as an astronomer at the Paris Observatory in 1961. He was awarded The Jules Verne Prize for his first science fiction novel “Le Subespace”.
Vallee is an important figure in the study of UFOs. In 1955 he first sighted a UFO over his home France. Working six years later on the staff of the French Space Committee he said he witnessed the destruction of the tracking tapes of an unknown object orbiting the Earth. This continued to spark his curiosity in the subject.
He moved to the US in 1962 and began working as a research astronomer at the University of Texas, a systems analyst at Northwestern University, briefly employed by Royal Dutch Shell in Paris, RCA Service Company in New Jersey, manager of information systems in the Stanford University Computer Center, and was a consultant to Stanford Institute for Plasma Research just to name a few. He also has authored several books. It has been said that Vallee’s first two UFO books were among the most scientifically sophisticated defenses of the ‘extraterrestrial hypothesis’ and promoting the ‘interdimensional hypothesis’.
In the late 60’s Vallee began exploring the commonalities between ufos and cults, religious movements, demons, angels, ghosts and psychic phenomena. He suggested a “multidimensional visitation hypothesis” where the alleged extraterrestrials could be potentially from anywhere. The entities could be multidimensional beyond space time thus they could coexist with humans yet remain undetected. It was not excepted by prominent U.S. ufologists at the time, hence was viewed as something of an outcast. He referred to himself as a ‘heretic among heretics’.
Vallee was one of the first people to speculate publicly about the possibility that the ‘miracle’ of ‘Our Lady of Fatima’ was actually a UFO.
Jacques was chosen by Steven Spielberg as the model for the character of Claude Lacombe, the French scientist played by Francois Truffaut in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”.
He has been highlighted in UFO conferences worldwide as well as several television documentaries.
Short List of Books by Vallee
*Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers..published 1969
*Dimensions: A Casebook of Alien Contact..published 1988
*The Invisible College..published 1975
*Messengers of Deception: UFO Contact And Cults…published 1979
John Coltrane..Sept.23, 1926-1967
John William Coltrane was an American Jazz saxophonist and composer, an iconic figure of 20th century jazz. He was born in Hamlet, North Carolina in his parent’s apartment.
When John was 18 his Mother bought him his first saxophone. He played clarinet and alto horn in a community band before beginning alto saxophone in high school. Coltrane had his first professional work in a ‘cocktail lounge trio’ with piano and guitar in 1945.
During his time in the Navy he joined the Melody Masters, the base swing band. By the end of his service he had assumed a leadership role in that band. His first recordings was an informal session in Hawaii with Navy musicians, he played alto saxophone.
After being discharged from the Navy as a seaman first class in 1946 Coltrane returned to Philadelphia where he ‘plunged’ into the new music scene. It is said he became fanatical about practicing and developing his craft practicing “25 hours” a day.
He considered Charlie Parker as his idol who he worked with later on stage. Over the years he also worked with Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Lee Morgan to name a few, and in big bands with Dizzy Gillespie and Duke Ellington.
Coltrane recorded close to 80 albums and was nominated for nine Grammy awards and won two (one of which was a Lifetime Achievement Award).
Christopher Reeve, Sept.25, 1952-2004
Christopher D’Olier Reeve was an American actor, director and activist, best known for playing the main character in the film “Superman”.
He was born in New York City, raised in Princeton, New Jersey and was interested in acting at age 9. His Mother was a journalist and his father was a teacher, novelist and poet.
Growing up he excelled academically, in sports and on stage and was on the honor roll. He was accepted into many universities and chose Cornell, joined their theatre department and appeared in numerous plays.
Christopher received a letter from Stark Hesseltine, a high powered NYC agent who discovered Robert Redford and represented actors such as Richard Chamberlain, Michael Douglas and Susan Sarandon. Christopher said he re-read the letter over and over as he couldn’t believe it. He grew impatient with school and wanted to get started in his acting career so returned to NY once a month to meet producers.
He studied, did a lot of stage work, flew to Glasgow then to Paris and immersed himself in their culture.
After returning to the states from Europe he auditioned for Juilliard where he and Robin Williams were the only two selected for the Advanced Program. They both remained close friends as well as with Katherine Hepburn.
His real break was auditioning for the role as Clark Kent/Superman. The morning after his meeting with director Richard Donner he was sent a 300 page script. The film was a huge success, several other successful sequels followed.
In the late 1980’s Reeve became more active, he bought a sailboat and took horse riding lessons even tho he was allergic to horses, (taking antihistamines) and still trained 5 to 6 days a week for competition.
While filming “Village of the Damned” he bought a 12 year old thoroughbred horse.
On May 27, 1995 Reeve competed in an event at the Commonwealth Park equestrian center in Culpeper, Virginia. About to make a routine 3 foot jump, his horse began the ‘fence jump’ and suddenly stopped. Reeve fell forward off the horse still holding onto the reins. He landed head first shattering his first and second vertebra, was paralyzed from the neck down and unable to breathe without a ventilator, but no brain damage.
While in the hospital he was told that he had a 50-50 chance he would survive a surgery to reattach his skull to his spine when the door flew open and in hurried a squat fellow with a blue scrub hat and a surgical gown and glasses speaking in a Russian accent and announced that he was a proctologist and was going to perform a rectal exam on Reeve. It was Robin Williams, and Reeve said later it was the first time since the accident that he laughed. His old friend helped him know that somehow he was going to be ok.
Christopher Reeve died 9 years later.
Ten months after the death of her husband, Dana Reeve announced that she had been diagnosed with lung cancer. She died in 2006.
The Christopher Reeve Foundation is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by advancing research and improving quality of life for those individuals.
Reeve starred in 27 films.
Short List Christopher Reeve films
Superman…1978, director Richard Donner, starred Margot Kidder, Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, film nominated for 4 Oscars and won the Special Achievement Award
Somewhere in Time…1980, director Jeannot Szwarc, story by Richard Matheson, starred Jane Seymour and Christopher Plummer, film nominated for one AA award
Village of the Damned…1995, director John Carpenter, starred Kirstie Allen, Karaen Kahn
Deathtrap…1982, director Sidney Lumet, starred Michael Caine, Dyan Cannon
Honorable Mentions
Linda McCartney…Sept.23, 1941-1998
Linda was the first wife of Paul McCartney and not only a musician herself but is known for her photography of celebrities and contemporary musicians.
Michael Douglas…Sept.25, 1944
An actor in over 60 films and is the son of screen legend Kirk Douglas. Most notable films are “Romancing the Stone”, “War of the Roses”, “The China Syndrome”, “The Game”, and television’s “The Streets of San Francisco”..1972-1977.
Will Smith..Sept.25,1968
Star of at least 40 films. Known for films “Independence Day” and “Men In Black” as well as television series “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” 1990-1996
Classical Composer’s birthday
(as part of Classical Music Month)
As September is Classical Music Month we honored the following composers.. the avant-garde John Cage, Antonin Dvorak, the trainspotter and Gustav Holst the astrologer and today we bring you our last classical composer for September….
Dmitri Shostakovich…Sept. 25, 1906-1975
Dmitri was a Soviet composer and pianist. He was one of the Russian cultures’s most acclaimed intellectuals who was censored under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin and was an internationally recognized composer whose music was played for over 100 Russian films. Many of the early films were silent and he was employed to play the music for the show in the theatre. He learned improvise, developed musical fragments and how to assign certain melodies for each character in the film.
He was born in Saint Petersburg. His father was a chemical engineer and his mother was a pianist. He displayed musical talent after he began piano lessons at age 9. He studied piano at a private school. His greatest influences were Bach and Beethoven. He composed his first symphony at age 19.
After graduation he initially embarked on a dual career as concert pianist and composer. Shostakovisch concentrated on composition and limited his performances primarily to his own works.
At age 26 he wrote “Lady Mac Beth of the Mtsensk Districk” and it was an unconventional piece at the time. Stalin was offended and the newspapers condemned the piece. Dmitri was reviled and the opera disappeared from the stage. He lived in fear of immediate arrest and slept outside his apartment to spare his family the site of his apprehension. Despite this he went on to receive a number of international awards. After the death of Stalin he was abe to compose without official interference and went on to international tours and visited The United States.
Dmitri was nominated for one AA award, and nominated for one Grammy Award.
One silent movie that Dmitri played for that was particularly interesting was the science fiction film Aelita: Queen of Mars in 1924 which was based on Tolstoy’s novel of the same name. It primarily tells of an engineer that travels to Mars in a rocket ship and a strange civilization there, a society where aristocrats rule over slaves who are confined underground and put into cold storage when not required.
On This Day
“60 Minutes” premiered on CBS, Sept.24, 1968, the longest running prime time show in American television history. The first episode was hosted by Harry Reasoner and Mike Wallace.
“Jailhouse Rock” single released by Elvis Presley, Sept.24, 1957. The song was written by “Leiber and Stoller” who also wrote “Hound Dog”, “Love Potion Number 9” and “On Broadway”.
KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) opens its first franchise in Salt Lake City, Sept. 24, 1952..and is still operational to this day. Inside the restaurant are KFC artifacts like Colonel Sanders’ white suit, a glass chicken bucket, and a brief case belonging to the colonel encased in glass.
