On this date...

September 28th, 1542 - Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo arrived at what is now San Diego. He was the first European to see California.

Ha.

Why couldn't he have been THE LAST ONE too!?
That difference alone would have cut back a good 33% of all that degrading, detestable "californication" they have going on down there, which has only been getting worse and worse since the damn Spaniards followed suit and went down there too...!

And don't just blame it on the heat either!
We all know that the BEST way to beat the heat is to take a COLD SHOWER - not act like dogs and alley cats!!!
*LMBO*

safety & self-defense tips

Because Luminous Luciano cares! Sure I do! Rrrrrright.
As much as Rrrrrrrrrrrutten does.
Rutten who?
Bas Rutten, that's who, bouncer extraordinaire!
To tell the truth, Bas Rutten was much more than just a bouncer. He was a mixed martial arts fighter all over the world's kickboxing rings, most notably where that sort of thing is really appreciated, namely in Japan. Bas Rutten was one of the best fighters in MMA spectator -and often, one has to admit, spectacular if brutal- sport. He was a 3-time Pancrase champion and an UFC champion too. Granted, he was a lean mean brawling machine back then - now he's become a beefier brute but still a likeable and often funny and agreeable guy, somehow...! For, here today, Bad a$$ Bas gives us a whole crash course on how to decimate any baddie that comes your way or simply antagonizes you in a bar, on the streets or anywhere in-between - free of any charge!



The thing is, Bas Rutten and I share the same philosophy. As he says in the video, he doesn't believe in an eye for an eye; he believes in two eyes for an eye. In other words, if someone attacks you, you show no mercy whatsoever in taking him out and "doing him damage" - permanent damage. This is inflicting debilitating damage upon your opponent, all in a spirit of self-defensive retaliation/revenge imbued of divinely-decreed self-preservation, of course! Yup - I believe in that! A much greater man taught us to "pray for our enemies" (Jesus said that, for you heathens without a clue) however I believe it applies to those enemies that stay out of our faces and hate us from afar! Those that get too close deserve to get hurt - and get hurt bad! No joke! Well, maybe not... The fact remains that so many decent folks are stuck on wheelchairs for the rest of their lives - if a few lowlives wind up in the same condition, it is not an injustice at all! Maybe the experience will make them better human beings - although, deep down, I doubt it will.

So, my luminous advice is indeed to do as Roustabout Rutten (a better nickname than, say, Rotten Rutten... eh?) admonishes, if only on week-ends and nights out, out onto the dangerous streets out there - for it is a jungle out there and these boogers deserve to be blinded and beaten up bad!

Who needs Stone Cold Steve Austin, Goldberg or Vin Diesel - when one has Bas Rutten for a hero and veritable role-model?
A practical hero, that is...
Over and out! ;)

The First Dream Cast And The First Dream Princess

There will never be another one like Princess Grace of Monaco...
On this date, she suffered a stroke and drove over a cliff, subsequently dying from the injuries sustained when her car plunged down a 45-foot (13.7-metre) embankment. That was on September 14, 1982.
The spot where she fatally lost control is said to be the same spot where the picnic scene in To Catch a Thief was filmed in 1954.
The inscription at her burial site in Monaco's cathedral does not refer to her as a princess. It uses the title "uxor principis" (prince's wife), which is traditional in the House of Grimaldi.

She is interred at the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, Monte Carlo, Monaco.

Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#5). [1995]

Ranked #51 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]

Grace Kelly had hoped "to return to acting in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964), but the people of Monaco didn't want their princess playing a thief and romancing Sean Connery." Instead, she stayed in Monaco - and would, of course, never return to the dream life of films and the glitz and glamour of Hollywood.

September 14th is known for less somber things too:
In 1920, the first live radio dance music was broadcast, carried by a Detroit station and featuring Paul Specht and his orchestra. The idea caught on fast... From Paul Specht to Phil Spector, music would never look back!

Sort of like Grace who, once she set foot into her princess glass slipper and onto Monaco, never looked twice at Tinseltown...

Also of note, on this date - September 14th, 1628, Salem, Massachusetts, was founded.
Mexico City was occupied by the U.S. Army, in 1847...
U.S. President William McKinley died of wounds inflicted by an assassin eight days earlier, in 1901. He was succeeded by his vice-president, Theodore Roosevelt.
The Soviet probe Lunik-2 became the first Earth-launched space vehicle to land on the moon in 1959 while, in 1963 ("wish I could be - back in 1963" - who penned those words that I paraphrase here, quick? Oh... Alan Moore. Carry on as if nothing happened then - cause not much did...!) the first surviving U.S. quintuplets were born in Aberdeen, S.D., to Maryann and Andrew Fischer.
There's your dream cast - the original Party of Five; the Fischers! ;)

See - not all somber events.
But for more somber events on this date, all throughout the year(s?) - check out The Lugubrious Blog!

This date - an all ominous date now - in history...

September 11th is the 254th day of the year.
Is there any SPECIAL MEANING to that?

Ever since "9/11", everything that has to do with this date THROUGHOUT HISTORY has been over-analyzed and over-emphasized... Because, of course, to have such a BAD DAY of this magnitude (I am listening to Daniel Powter's Bad Day tune as I ramble in writ here...!) in the GOOD OL' MIGHTY USA - it simply HAS TO HAVE A GREATER MEANING IN THE COSMIC GRAND SCHEME OF UNIVERSAL THINGS...!!!

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrright...

THESE (following) ARE THE FACTS THOUGH:

On a September 11th...
in 1297 - Scottish patriot Sir William Wallace defeated the army of Edward I at Stirling Bridge. (He would end badly and pay dearly for this victory...)

in 1709 - Duke of Marlborough (John Churchill) and Prince Eugene of Savoy of Austria defeated French Marshal Villars at the Battle of Malplaquet, France. (They would end badly and pay dearly for this victory...)

in 1777 - General George Washington and his troops are defeated by the British under General William Howe at the Battle of Brandywine, Pennsylvania. (The British would pay dearly for this victory - though they have not ended badly at all - yet)

in 1786 - The Annapolis Convention - in which 12 delegates met to discuss commercial matters of interest between the states - was convened, leading to the Constitutional Convention. (That would end badly too - no? *lol*)

in 1789 - Alexander Hamilton was appointed the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. (He died.)

in 1814 - American fleet scored a decisive victory over the British in Battle of Lake Champlain (War of 1812). The American victory, coupled with the end of the British war against Napoleon, led to peace negotiations in Ghent, Belgium. (The Americans would pay dearly for this victory - with Vietnam maybe? And seem bent on ending badly - with what they are doing today...)

in 1841 - President John Tyler's veto of the Banking Bill prompted his cabinet to resign (except Secretary of State Daniel Webster). (Webster would regret this badly - and he as Tyler ended badly too!)

in 1850 - Opera singer Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale," made her American debut at New York's Castle Garden Theater. (She's dead. Her new audience loves her though...)

in 1897 - A strike by 75,000 coal mine workers ended after 10 weeks. The miners won an 8-hour workday, semimonthly paychecks, and the abolition of company stores.
(The miners would pay dearly for this victory though... and, you've guessed it, end badly. And end up dirty too.)

in 1904 - The battleship Connecticut was launched in New York. (It ended badly.)

in 1916 - First time "Star Spangled Banner" was sung at the beginning of a baseball game (Cooperstown, New York). (How many times has it ended badly - when the likes of Roseanne Barr sung it? How many times did it start an evening that ended oh-so-very-badly for the home team... huh? Well, when it's a New York team, it's oh-so well-deserved though...!)

in 1918 - American troops arrived in Russia to fight the Bolsheviks.
9that ended badly for the Bolsheviks... But the Americans are all dead too, nowadays...)

in 1941 - Charles A. Lindbergh said "the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt administration" were trying to draw the U.S. into World War II, sparking charges of anti-Semitism. (That ended badly for Lindbergh too...)

in 1954 - Miss America Pageant debuted on TV; Miss California, Lee Ann Meriwether, was crowned the winner. (That ended badly for Miss Meriwether too - with the not-so plum role of Catwoman...!)

in 1959 - The first U.S. food stamps were authorized by Congress.
(That did NOT end hunger in America. Much less elsewhere...)

in 1967 - "The Carol Burnett Show" premiered on TV. (That ended with cancellation - is that bad enough for ya?)

in 2001 - Suicide hijackers crashed two airliners into the World Trade Center in New York, causing the 110-story twin towers to collapse. Another hijacked airliner hit the Pentagon and a fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. The attackers were Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia and several other Arab nations. Reportedly financed by Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist organization, they were allegedly acting in retaliation for America's support of Israel, its involvement in the Persian Gulf War, and its continued military presence in the Middle East.
(We all how badly all of that ended... Oh, right - it hasn't ended yet. Dubya & crew seem to want it to end with WORLD WAR 3 - and nothing else!)

THE FOLLOWING POOR SOULS WERE BORN INTO THIS SADDER WORLD ON A SEPTEMBER 11TH...
(those that are born on this date henceforth will TRULY be sad for it!)

1862 - O. Henry (William Sydney Porter), American short story writer. (when they make chocolate bars bearing your name, you know you've made it!)
1885 - D.H. Lawrence, English novelist and editor. (not the originator of the D.H. in the American League of Baseball though - sorry to deprive you of your illusions about THAT...!)
1917 - Ferdinand Marcos, Philippines president (1965-1986). (when an obscure French-Canadian singer-songwriter makes a song about you -"Ferdinando Marcos... a une villa sous la mer" Huh? What?- you know the end is near...)
1924 - Tom Landry, coach of the Dallas Cowboys football team. (not even the team's famed cheerleaders will cheer this one... It's jeers only for Tom these days!)
1940 - Brian DePalma, American movie director. (The one with a Hitchcock complex)

ASIDE FROM THE MANY DEATHS OF "9/11" (AND COUNTLESS ANONYMOUS ONES WHO HAVE PERISHED ON THIS DATE THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY OF MANKIND) THESE ILLUSTRIOUS NAMES HAVE DIED ON THIS DATE AS WELL:

1971 - Nikita Khrushchev, former Soviet Union leader. (Not the basis for an Elton John song...)
1973 - Chilean President Salvador Allende, in a violent military coup. (No relation to Isabel... I hope - for her sake.)
1987 - Peter Tosh, Jamaican reggae singer-songwriter. (Not one of the Monkees)
1994 - Jessica Tandy, English stage and film actress. (No longer in need to be driven around, Mrs. Daisy is not... Well, she got one last ride - in a hearse...)
2003 - John Ritter, American film and television actor and son of legendary country singing star and actor Tex Ritter. (More recent mourning on this ominous date on the calendar - John's son will stop everything, in his own tentative showbusiness career, and pause to mourn on this day, every single year henceforth... His attempt at following on his grandpa's and dad's footsteps - and, more particularly, at doing what his dad did so well, might be a bit of "Three's A Crowd" though...)

INTERESTING HOLIDAYS ON THIS DATE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD...
In Ethiopia, it is the New Year - nothing less than that!
Pakistan: Jinnah Day (founder's death anniversary).
Chile: National Liberation Day. (can't all be sad occasions, eh).
Philippines: Barangay Day. (note to self: google "barangay" - and ignore every queer hit...)
Niger: Cure Salee (celebration of the Salted Cure). (another "non-sad" example - good).
United States: Patriot Day. (Of course).
Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau: National Day. (The Portuguese had no idea how ill-fated those two ventures were, back then...).
And in muslim countries, extremists rejoice hardy on this date, I'm sure...

IN CONCLUSION...
September 11th seems to be a date like so many others on the calendar really...
Only a conspiracy theorist - or a sarcastic rambler, as I am being here - would see anything else there...

;)