Happy Birthday Julie Harris!

Julie Anne Harris was born on Dec. 2, 1925. She has always been one of my favorite actresses. In fact, she starred in my favorite movie, The Haunting, in 1963. Lastech wrote about it in Midnight Madness. She appeared in numerous movies and tv shows, including East of Eden. In addition to tv and movies, she has perfomed on stage.

According to IMDb,

Julie Harris is the most honored performer in Tony history with ten nominations and five victories. She won the award as Best Actress (Dramatic) for “I Am A Camera” (1952), “The Lark” (1956), “Forty Carats” (1969), and “The Last of Mrs. Lincoln” (1973); and as Best Actress (Play) for “The Belle of Amherst” (1977). Her five additional nominations were: for Best Actress (dramatic), “Marathon ’33” (1964) and “The Au Pair Man” (1974); for Best Actress (musical), “Skyscraper” (1966); and for Best Actress (play), “Lucifer’s Child” (1991), and “The Gin Game” (1997).

Julie Harris in the East of Eden Trailer

JBoD would like to take the time to wish Ms. Harris a wonderful and happy birthday.


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Leslie “Don’t call me Shirley” Nielsen has died

He passed away Sunday, at the age of 84, due to complications from pneumonia.

Leslie Nielsen was born in Skaskatchewan, Canada in 1926.  He served in the Canadian Air Force and worked as a disk jockey before taking up acting.  He began working in television in 1948 with more than 50 appearances in two years.  He later went on to appear in a great many television shows.

He started in films in 1956.  His first roles were dramatic.  My first and fondest memories of Leslie Nielsen are as Commander Adams in The Forbidden Planet (1956) and the Captain in The Poseidon Adventure (1972).  Nielsen gained his biggest fame when he starred in Airplane! (1980) later in The Naked Gun  (1988) and it’s sequels.  His ability to play a serious character who is oblivious to the absurdity surrounding him brought him a new generation of fan.

Leslie William Nielsen will be missed by all.  We, at JBoD, extend our sincerest condolences to his family, friends, and fans.

Leslie Nielsen and Anne Francis in The Forbidden Planet
Leslie Nielsen and Anne Francis in The Forbidden Planet


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Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

We just wanted to take the time to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving day.  We don’t really celebrate holidays like a lot of others, but we’re not stick-in-the-muds either.  Lastech didn’t grow up with a Thanksgiving day like me.  Some of our readers celebrate different holidays than we do in the States.

So….we’ve made this day our own.  We have many things to be thankful for.  We have our health and Lastech is working again.    In addition to having some pretty great friends and family,  we also have the added blessing of having two wonderful kitties.  We hope many of you can say the same.

We hope that all of you have a wonderful day.

Best wishes from Lastech and Rudha-an

Turkey and Football


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Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park: Part 2, The Potted Plant Gallery

I meant to post this sooner, but we got caught up in a rather heavy rain/hail/lightning/ mess, so I turned the computer off to be safe.

Previously, I posted Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park: Part 1, The Lowland Tropics.

Anyone who comes to San Francisco should try and find the time to visit the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. Opened to the public in 1879, it is the oldest building in the park. It houses around 1700 plant species. The orchid collection is said to be one of the best.

This time we’re going to visit the Potted Plants Gallery.

Hibiscus
Hibiscus

 

The Conservatory of Flowers is located at 100 John F. Kennedy Drive. It is accessible for motorized and non motorized wheelchairs. Strollers are not permitted inside, but there is a place to park them while you explore. As it is a greenhouse, it will be quite warm and humid inside. As it can be rather cold outside, be sure to wear removable layers. It is open Tuesday thru Sunday from 10am to 4:30pm. The cost is $7 for adults, $5 for ages 12-17, seniors 65 & over, and college students with school ID. $2 for children 5 – 11 and free for children 4 and under. Local residents receive a discount with proof of residency.

Note: On Sundays, John F. Kennedy Drive is closed to vehicular traffic. For those who don’t mind walking, you can just park on Martin Luther King Drive and walk to the Conservatory.

Amazingly, the Conservatory barely escaped disaster more than once. It had to have the dome restored after an 1883 boiler explosion and fire. It also managed to survive the 1906 Earthquake. In 1933 Structural instability caused the Park Commission to close it. The Great Depression meant a lack of funds preventing it from reopening until 1946.

The Potted Plants Gallery is home to hibiscus, cymbidium orchids, bromeliads, begonias, and much more. When I know the name of a plant, the pictures will be labeled. Not everything had a marker, so I was unsure of a few.  Should anyone know the name of any of these unnamed plants, feel free to comment.  I’ll update if necessary.

I hope you enjoyed some of these. I also hope they give you the urge to visit our fine city and see what it has to offer. I wasn’t born and raised here, however, I can understand the song “I Left My Heart In San Francisco”. 🙂


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Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park: Part 1, The Lowland Tropics

On Sunday, Lastech and I went adventuring in the city. San Francisco has many beautiful places and sometimes we like to be tourists for a day.  We had never been to the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park, so we decided it was time. Now we wonder what took us so long. The day was sunny and the visit was beautiful. I took so many pictures that they will come in installments.

Anyone who comes to San Francisco should try to find the time to visit the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. Opened to the public 1879, it is the oldest building in the park. It houses around 1700 plant species. The orchid collection is said to be one of the best.

Conservatory of Flowers
Conservatory of Flowers

The Conservatory of Flowers is located at 100 John F. Kennedy Drive. It is accessible for motorized and non motorized wheelchairs. Strollers are not permitted inside, but there is a place to park them while you explore. As it is a greenhouse, it will be quite warm and humid inside. As it can be rather cold outside, be sure to wear removable layers. It is open Tuesday thru Sunday from 10am to 4:30pm. The cost is $7 for adults, $5 for ages 12-17, seniors 65 & over, and college students with school ID. $2 for children 5 – 11 and free for children 4 and under. Local residents receive a discount with proof of residency.

Note: On Sundays, John F. Kennedy Drive is closed to vehicular traffic. For those who don’t mind walking, you can just park on Martin Luther King Drive and walk to the Conservatory.

As I noted earlier, the Conservatory of Flowers was opened to the public in 1879. The architecture is said to have been inspired by London’s Kew Gardens. It is of wood and glass construction. The original wood used in construction was coastal redwood.

Once at the Conservatory you enter via the vestibule to the 60 foot high pavilion. This part of the Conservatory houses the Lowland Tropics plants. These are plants that grow in the low-lying tropical forests found in Mexico, Brazil, and Indonesia at altitudes less than 3,000 feet.

This area houses plants such as coffee, bananas, cacao, cycads, and a 100 year old imperial philodendron.

I hope you enjoy the following pictures and with luck, they will inspire you to visit the Conservatory of Flowers one day.

 

Next time we’ll explore the Potted Plant Gallery.


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Tito’s Guide to Cats: Drinking water

MeeMEE! I just learned something about my fellow kitties. We really know how to maximize physics when we drink water.

From the Washington Post

While a dog curls its tongue like a ladle to collect the water and then pull up what it can, a cat curves its tongue under and slightly back, leaving the top surface of the tip of the tongue to lightly touch the liquid. The cat then raises its tongue rapidly, creating an upward mini-stream of water. The cat snaps its mouth shut and the water is captured before the countervailing force of gravity pulls it down.
An average house cat, the team found, can make four of these mini-streams per second.

Continue reading “Tito’s Guide to Cats: Drinking water”

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Dino De Laurentiis passed away today

Dino De Laurentiis has passed away at the age of 91.  He was a huge man in the movie industry.

De laurentiis was born in 1919 in a small village near Naples, Italy. He enrolled in film school at the age of 17 and at 20 had already produced his first film. He went on to produce many films and won his first Oscar for producing Federico Fellini’s La Strada followed by another Oscar for Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria.  Both films won for the Best Foreign Language category.

Dino De Laurentiis produced a great many films.   Some of his more memorable films include Serpico (1973), Dune (1984), Army of Darkness (1992), and Red Dragon (2002). Of course, we just cannot forget that 1968 classic, Barbarella. In the end, he produced more than 150 films.

Dino De Laurentiis will be missed. He is survived by his wife and children.

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