(from https://brandongaille.com/10-people-that-found-great-success-after-turning-60/)
-Frank McCourt became a beset-selling author at 66. Published in 1996, Angela's Ashes sold 5 million copies . . .
-A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) at 69. Registered (the organization) in New York on July 11, 1966. . . his writings have since been translated into 76 languages. . .
-Mary Delaney invented paper collage at 72. In the following 10 years, Delaney created 985 botanically correct, cut paper flowers . . .
-Laura Ingalls Wilder began writing the hugely popular 'Little House' books at 65. . . immortalized in the eponymous TV series. . .
-Estelle Getty achieved widespread fame in 'The Golden Girls' at 63. After an unsuccessful career . . . making Getty famous overnight . . .
-Fauja Singh ran his first marathon at 69. . . becoming the oldest man to run a full marathon when he completed the Toronto Waterfront (at age 100). . .
". . . “Once upon a deadline dreary . . . ”. . . The author, an alumnus of the University of MarylandDiamondback, had butchered “The Raven,” evoking the gothic plight of a journalist trapped at a typewriter, trying to keep his work fresh as he exhausted new developments in the top few paragraphs and was reduced to recounting backstory. To conclude each stanza, the haunting voice came to him: “Rewrite the background, ever more.” “No,” wails the reporter, “I will not burden my tale with all that came before.” “Rewrite the background, ever more.” . . . On the police beat, on general assignment, and especially on the rewrite desk, you were usually reacting to new developments on stories that were ongoing for days or months. You would quickly marry the fresh stuff to what had already been reported, more often than not by other staffers. You relied on info from the newspaper library, working your way through old clips, changing a word or two, flipping a sentence with a dependent clause, or, if you needed to lift a large chunk, restructuring a few paragraphs. . . So I am a plagiarist. And if we agree to the definition implied in both City Paper’s coverage of the Olesker imbroglio (Media Circus, Jan. 4. 2006) and the Sun’s response, then perhaps every rewrite man is a plagiarist. So, too, for reporters who routinely write stories using morgue clippings for background, or who work to catch up on a competitor’s reportage and err by not independently confirming every single detail. So, too, for every columnist who ever used reported material—either his own newspaper’s or that of another—as the given terrain on which to maneuver. . . A lot of people need to be fired, apparently. There may be scribes confident of their day-after-day, year-after-year output, who are sure no paragraph they ever used as background is too similar to its source, who are certain that whenever they reworked another paper’s story every fact was reconfirmed. But there are others—many others—who, in reflecting on Olesker’s fate, will privately admit unease. . . Journalism is not scholarship. While reporting requires integrity and precision, it is not a world of footnotes, textual cites, and bibliographic acknowledgment, and the news report of any major daily is a communal property. . ."
. . . the vineyard tasting room quickly abandoned by the large group of young, professional-types and their limo driver (our 'tour guide', if you will). . .
. . . who predominantly occupies the lion's share of the tasting bar geography while inundating the atmosphere with boisterous, jocular, superficial chatter during our intended, peaceful, rejuvenating lunch break, the musician readily and sincerely empathizes. This for both the obliviousness and the indifference demonstrated by the general public in response to the honest, sincere, creative efforts put forth by individuals such as creators of fine, fermented beverages as well as the authors of those creative, original, eclectic musical endeavors with which they are confronted on a regular basis. . .
(Note: OHO was much appreciated by the audience at Elk Run Vineyard on this particular warm August night.)
My latest solo offering, No Frills, is now available at - No Frills
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
(from OHO's Jay Graboski via Facebook 11/5/15)
". . . Today, 11/06/15: Off to Bill Pratt's Woodlawn production studio (The Bratt) to collate the score of tunes intended to grace our forthcoming compilation of tunes about Maryland (& related topics) by local musicians/bands (The MD/CD). These will be then handed over to engineer/producer/author Tyree Ford for mastering. When I get this finished master back, then begins the arduous task of (for me) securing licenses authorizing the use of 5 of the 6 cover songs ("Baltimore," "Barefoot in Baltimore," "Raining in Baltimore," "The Streets of Baltimore" & "The Lady Came From Baltimore") as well as assembling the credits; then (for David Pugh) creating an attractive graphic package. Is that "Ode to Baltimore" somewhere in this compendium? Time will be the wiser. . "
My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
Jayson Blair, a reporter for the New York Times, was a rising star in journalsim until someone noticed similarities between one of his articles one by one of their reporters Macarena Hernandez. The Times eventually discovered that at least 36 of his 73 articles contained plagiarism, fabrication or other unethical behavior. Blair resigned from the New York Times.
Kaavya Viswanathan was a Harvard student who got a book deal rumored to be worth $1 million and her first work had reached number 32 on the New York Times bestseller list. Talk of movie deals and more books was abound. Allegations surfaced that she copied portions of her book from other authors.
Lloyd Brown was the editorial page editor for the Florida Times-Union when allegations arose that he had used plagiarized material in some of his editorials prompting an investigation. Brown later resigned amidst incidents of plagiarism and other instances of lack of complete attribution dating back to 1996.
Nada Behziz was a reporter at The Bakersfield Californian focusing on health issues later fired when editors discovered a plagiarized quotation from a 1995 story in the San Francisco Examiner. Additional investigation revealed 29 other pieces she had written contained plagiarized material representing more than a third of the work.
Veteran Baltimore Sun columnist Michael Olesker was dismissed over several instances where he plagiarized wording of other journalists without proper attribution. Olesker was a Baltimore columnist for nearly three decades and said he did not intentionally engage in plagiarism. He said, "I screwed up. I made mistakes. Would I do it intentionally? My God, no. That would be professional suicide, unethical and immoral. I'm sick over what happened."
OHO's "Ocean City Ditty," the CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD) OHO is Jay Graboski, David Reeve & Ray Jozwiak. Please Visit http://www.ohomusic.com
My latest solo offering, Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak, featuring original, instrumental piano music is now available at - Just More Music by Ray Jozwiak
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
(Thanks to http://www.hoax-slayer.com/why-hoaxes.html)
Spreading viral hoax emails is essentially cyber graffiti. Is it a cheap thrill or revenge against society in general?
In some cases, a newly created hoax message might spread a lot further than the author originally intended. Some hoaxes start out as just a practical joke aimed squarely at a select group of friends. But the friends send it to their friends and, in short order, the message has irretrievably escaped into the wilds of Cyberspace. Some time back, a widely distributed hoax message about a group of Cambodian midgets fighting a lion started in exactly this way.
Sometimes the author misinterpreted something and genuinely felt compelled to let others know about it. For example, the infamous "Bonsai Kittens" website appears to have prompted one outraged visitor to create and send out an email petition calling for authorities to close down the site. However, the creator of the email petition apparently did not realize that the site was just a joke. In spite of the fact that nobody is really making Bonsai Kittens, this misguided petition continues to circulate and collect email addresses years after it was first launched.
Some say spammers deliberately create hoax emails as a way of subsequently collecting email addresses. Certainly, messages that get forwarded many times can accumulate a great many email addresses and spammers may well harvest these addresses for use on spam lists. For such an exercise to be successful (from the spammer's point of view), he or she would have to set up a mechanism by which the hoax messages were eventually returned after they had accumulated a large number of email addresses. Typically, email hoaxes do not have any such mechanism. If they did, it would perhaps make it possible to identify the original author.
Hoaxbusters.org says there are 5 tell-tale signs that an email is a hoax:
1. It clearly conveys urgency through capitalization and/or many exclamation points
2. The importance of the message is stressed telling you to share by sending it to as many others as you possibly can
3. It states that it is NOT a hoax. It may even contain a disclaimer such as, 'This came from my neighbor who works for Microsoft so I know it's true'
or even a link to Snopes (which most people will not bother to follow)
4. "Dire Consequences" will result if you do not act
5. Many >>>>> marks appear in the left margin indicating many forwardings
OHO's
"Ocean City Ditty," the
CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if
you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)
Ronald Reagan became the governor of California at 61, and later also became US President.
Sam Snead won the Par 3 Tournament in 1974 when he was 61.
Gandhi was 61 when he and his followers marched 240 miles in 24 days to make their own salt from the sea in defiance of British colonial laws and taxes.
Benjamin Franklin at age 70 played an instrumental role in drafting and signing the Declaration of Independence and at age 81 signed the Constitution of the United States of America.
Frank McCourt, the author who wrote the bestseller "Angela's Ashes" first began to write in his sixties.
Winston Churchill, with his fondness for cigars and Scotch, was active and productive until his death at age ninety.
(taken from http://www.factcheck.org/2009/04/snopescom/ by Viveca Novak on Friday, April 10, 2009)
A widely circulated e-mail contains a number of false claims about the urban legend-busting Snopes.com and its proprietors, Barbara and David Mikkelson, who started the site in 1995 and still run it. They’re accused of hiding their identities, doing shoddy research, producing articles with a liberal bent and discrediting an anti-Obama State Farm agent out of partisanship.
One issue prompting the tirade was a sign Gregg posted last summer outside his office in Mandeville, La. It said, "A taxpayer voting for Barack Obama is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders." Snopes.com wrote it up in an article headlined "Chicken Hawked." The e-mail writer says that "they claimed the corporate office of State Farm pressured Gregg into taking down the sign, when in fact nothing of the sort ‘ever’ took place." But that’s exactly what did happen, according a company representative.
In her article, Barbara Mikkelson didn’t actually use the word "pressured" as the e-mail claims. What she said was: "A State Farm representative said that Bud Gregg’s office sign bore these messages until 3 July 2008 and that the company had requested the sign be removed as soon as they became aware of it because the sign was inconsistent with State Farm’s policy of not endorsing candidates or taking sides in political campaigns."
And State Farm spokeswoman Molly Quirk-Kirby confirmed in a letter to us the same thing she had told Snopes.com earlier: "Management requested the sign be removed as soon as its presence became known. It was taken down on July 3, 2008. Mr. Gregg’s sign was not endorsed by, nor consistent with State Farm’s corporate practices. The company does not endorse candidates, nor take sides in political campaigns." The e-mail’s author says the Mikkelsons didn’t call Gregg, and David says that’s true. He says he sent the insurance agent an e-mail, but did not receive a response.
The e-mail goes on: "Then it has been learned the Mikkelson’s are very Democratic (party) and extremely liberal," adding: "There has been much criticism lately over the internet with people pointing out the Mikkelson’s liberalism revealing itself in their website findings." The author cites no evidence and no sources for either of these propositions.
We asked David. He told us that Barbara is a Canadian citizen, and as such isn’t allowed to vote here or contribute money to U.S. candidates. As for him, "My sole involvement in politics is on Election Day to go out and vote. I’ve never joined a party, worked for a campaign or donated money to a candidate. . . You’d be hard-pressed to find two more apolitical people," David Mikkelson said. . ."
The e-mail also accuses the Mikkelsons of "hiding" their identities. "Only recently did Wikipedia get to the bottom of it," the message claims. That’s nonsense. It may well be that the author of this e-mail was ignorant of the Mikkelsons until recently, but it’s never been a secret who is behind Snopes.com. We even dug up a reference to David Mikkelson from 1995, a year when the Internet was in its infancy. A collection of short items under the headline "A Special Report: The Virtual Valley" in the Los Angeles Times included a photo of him.
The e-mail’s last paragraph advises that everyone who goes to Snopes.com for "the bottom line facts" should "proceed with caution." We think that’s terrific advice, not just in connection with material on Snopes but for practically anything a reader finds online — including articles on FactCheck.org. The very reason we list our sources (as does Snopes.com) and provide links is so that readers can check things out for themselves. . .
The mistakes (in the email) could have been avoided if the authors had contacted the couple. "None of them did," Mikkelson said.
Johnny Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Although he is primarily remembered as a country music artist, his songs and sound spanned many other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll—especially early in his career—as well as blues, folk, and gospel. This crossover appeal led to Cash being inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Late in his career, Cash covered songs by several rock artists.
Cash was known for his deep, distinctive bass-baritone voice; for the "boom-chicka-boom" sound of his Tennessee Three backing band; for his rebelliousness, coupled with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor; for providing free concerts inside prison walls; and for his dark performance clothing, which earned him the nickname "The Man in Black". He traditionally started his concerts by saying, "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash." and usually following it up with his standard "Folsom Prison Blues."
Cash, a troubled but devout Christian,has been characterized as a "lens through which to view American contradictions and challenges." A Biblical scholar, he penned a Christian novel titled Man in White, and he made a spoken word recording of the entire New King James Version of the New Testament. Even so, Cash declared that he was "the biggest sinner of them all", and viewed himself overall as a complicated and contradictory man. Accordingly, Cash is said to have "contained multitudes", and has been deemed "the philosopher-prince of American country music".
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. . . my hero, philosopher, favorite author and scholar John Shelby Spong, who writes. . .
"Religion has to be about the enhancement of life through love. Religious rules are sacred only if they serve to enhance life. That is the point Jesus was depicted as making when he declared that human life was not made to fit into the Sabbath day rules, but that the Sabbath days rules were created to enhance human life. Suddenly the essence of ethics is seen not as something about good and evil, or even about justice and injustice; and it is certainly not about a code of rules or laws that is inscribed in a holy text or cut into tablets of stone. No, ethics are always designed to assist in the expansion of life. Every act, whether it be individual or corporate, must be judged as right or wrong based solely on whether it enhances or diminishes the life of another. If my action diminishes another, it also diminishes me. A diminished life is never the place where holiness will be found. Diminished lives will never be loving lives. . ."
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. . . already read the story of 'Jerry' that I posted yesterday and I want to be clear that I posted it for the value I see in it and by no means whatsoever take credit for the composition of it. I have seen it, as I'm sure you have, numerous times on the internet and have received it by email, but have never learned the author of it. Well, CHEERS to her or him.
I did add the note at the conclusion myself. The originals say something like, "Now you have two choices to make (which interestingly enough is grammatically incorrect) : 1. You can delete this message or 2. You can forward it to someone you care about. I hope you will choose #2. I did.
First time I read the story, I expected the ending to say, "Forward this to XXX amount of people or you will have seven years bad luck" or something to that effect.
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