I've got a beautiful feeling everything's going' my way

Today I'm celebrating the anniversary of the opening of the musical Oklahoma! on Broadway

Oklahoma! is the first musical play composed by Rodgers and Hammerstein. The original Broadway production opened forty-five years ago on March 31, 1943. It was a box-office smash. It ran for a then unprecedented 2,212 performances. There have been award-winning revivals, national tours and an Academy Award-winning 1955 film adaptation. There have been many awards from 1947 - 2002 for productions of Oklahoma!

The musical is set in the Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906. It tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance with farmer girl Laurey Williams. Their love is challenged by a threatening farmhand, Jud Fry. Much of the play follows the tension generated by this conflict.

This is one of my favorite musicals of all time. You likely too have seen the original movie or a production of the musical in your area. I have several favorite songs from the musical. I can't decide which I like best! So, I posted three below, featuring a favorite performer of mine, Hugh Jackman.

Oklahoma!


As posted on YouTube by Julchen68

Oh What a Beautiful Morning


As posted on YouTube by BestArts

And, you can't forget the practical tips that can still be used today from
People will say we're in love


As posted on YouTube by BestArts

Today I hope that you had a beautiful morning and everything is going your way!

Reference: Wikipedia article
Image credit: Poster advertising Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical Oklahoma! (1943) from Encyclopedia Britannica Online

Celebrating 100 postings

Today I'm celebrating my 100th post to this blog!

When I submitted my first blog posting in November, I really had no idea where this whole thing would go. I had a goal to think of things daily to celebrate and to share those, daily. Actually, I've not been able to post every single day -- with work, travel, and keeping up with up to 5 wikis and 3 blogs now. I was not sure who would visit or how often. I signed up with Google Analytics to watch the traffic and since December 10 have watched 2,245 visitors as reported by Clustrmaps. A very few have posted comments, but I've received some very nice notes from readers. I also had another purpose - to learn the techniques and technical aspects of blogging. This blog has not won any awards and it's likely not on anyone's blog roll. However, I've learned a lot through this blog -- not only about memorable people, places, and things that make each day special, but also about myself. I've laughed at times, but I've also cried. I've know some who have also done so, because they've told me.

It is sometimes surprising what postings have been most popular. During Christmas, I was not surprised to see the popularity of the postings about Christmas with the Peanuts gang. Although I have not formerly tracked the most popular postings month-to-month, I have made some observations of the popular posts. Here are some favorites:
Everywhere I am, there you'll be
Just believe it.... there's nothing to it
Of all the stupid things
Feeling a bit insecure?
Really achieving your dreams
Guys you have a 10-minute head start at the sound of the gun
All the way, with one exception
Livin' in the fridge
Put your feet in the air and move them around
I'm all shook up 'cause I just saw Elvis leave the building
Crunchy or creamy
Off chasing dreams, but the same that I've really always been
Driving in circles for 50 years, 10,000 laps, and 25,000 miles
Going round and round in circles

If I had to repeat one blog post today, on the celebration of my 100th posting, it would be a message just for you: The most important thing you can say. Just as I felt when I started on this blog, I still hope that you find something that interests, amuses, or informs you. I hope that you'll continue to join me on my adventure in celebrating life!

Where the answer is only a question

Today I'm celebrating the debut of the TV game show Jeopardy! in 1964

Jeopardy! has trademark status as "America's Favorite Quiz Show" and its accomplishments prove why that is so. It has ranked first in Nielson ratings for the quiz show genre for more than 1,000 weeks and has nearly 39 million viewers weekly. It has been honored with 27 Daytime Emmy Awards. The highest cumulative amount won by any single player exceeds $3 million by Brad Rutter. Ken Jennings broke the record for the most consecutive games, winning 74 games in a row to win more than $2.5 million. Each month, its web site receives nearly 400,000 visitors.

The show regularly includes celebrities. Special clues have been presented from the NASA astronauts from the space shuttle Atlantis and celebrities like Morgan Freeman, Adam Sandler, Charles Barkley, Bill Clinton, Al Franken, Rudy Guiliani, John McCain, Joel Schumacher, Jerry Seinfeld, and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Many celebrities have competed to raise millions for charity, including Jodie Foster, Ashton Kutcher, Al Franken, Chris Matthews, Harry Connick, Jr., Rosie O’Donnell, David Duchovny, Wayne Brady, Star Jones, Jane Seymour, Jason Alexander, Regis Philbin, Larry King, Buzz Aldrin, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tom Clancy, Kirsten Dunst, Wolf Blitzer, Naomi Judd, Kelsey Grammer, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Stephen King and Carol Burnett.

Its theme song is called Think and was composed by Merv Griffin as a lullaby for his son. It has been performed on the show by a pipe organ and the Whiffenpoofs, the Yale acapella group. It is also well known on Youtube. You can hear it on YouTube performed on the sax, piano, and bass. You can even hear a gastric version of it by The Four Squeezins.

The show has been portrayed or parodied numerous times. In the series Cheers, the character Cliff Clavin, a trivia bluff, appeared as a contestant. Saturday Night Live has parodied the celebrity matches, with a twisted version with Sean Connery as a contestant. Weird Al Yankovic wrote a parody of Greg Kihn's song Jeopardy called I lost on Jeopardy that you can see here:


As posted on YouTube by a Roflmon

Reference: Wikipedia and the This is Jeopardy! sites

Hey, Hey, it's time to monkee around!

Today I'm celebrating The Monkees!

On this date in 1968, the 58th and final episode of The Monkees TV show was aired. The Monkees TV Show premiered in September 1966 on NBC. It was an off-the-wall, wacky comedy show about a 4-piece rock band and was patterned after The Beatles' movie A Hard Days Night. The TV show portrayed four hip young men who lived together, gave each other understanding and love, and went around saving everybody. The four actors recruited for the show, Micky Dolenz, Mike Nesmith, Peter Tork and David Jones, had all individually performed musically prior to the show. They were trained in both improvisational comedy and stage presence as a group so that they could look and act like a cohesive band. Each band member was given a different personality to portray: Dolenz, the funny one; Tork, the naive one; Nesmith, the smart and serious one; and Jones, the cute one. Here's a video from YouTube of the theme song of The Monkees show:

As posted on YouTube by OrangeTabbyCat3

The actors of The Monkees provided primarily vocals and did not play their instruments on early albums. The Monkees aroused fierce controversy. Some considered The Monkees as a "manufactured group" and a fraud. While the Beatles had been called the "Fab Four" (fab short for fabulous), The Monkees were often called the "Pre-Fab four" (pre-fab short for pre-fabricated as a made-for-TV knockoff of The Beatles). I was happy to learn that the Beatles took the success of The Monkees in stride and reportedly were fans of the show. The actors were criticized for not playing their own music (even though other bands used session players while recording), but they were not allowed. They eventually won the battle and even toured, playing all of the music themselves. The line between fiction and reality was often blurred to their fans though.

The Monkees television show and the music of the band was a huge success. The Monkees television show used techniques rarely seen on episodic television, including talking to the camera, fantasy sequences, abrupt inserts, vignettes which now look very much like music videos, and 'extras' added to the end of the show. The Monkees won two Emmy Awards in 1967: Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy. The music of The Monkees was extremely successful, with the first four albums released reaching #1 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. Four singles released reached #1-#3 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966-68 and seven reached #1-#3 positions on Cashbox for that time period. At the end of the second season, production ceased and without the TV show for promotion and few friends in the music industry (due to what some describe as their easy fame), the group members went their separate ways. In 1986, after an MTV run of 24 hours of Monkees TV episodes, the band revived, created a reunion record and toured (minus one member), and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame before breaking up again.

Some argue that The Monkees was influential in the 1960s in the idea of music video promotion, marketing of TV show products to pre-teen audiences, and opened the door to multimedia. While some consider the music of The Monkees as manufactured, many others fondly remember The Monkees from their childhood and teen years. In the end, I think you'd agree that The Monkees was indeed a real working band, provided quality music, provided comedy in a format that had never been tried before, and was wildly successful.

Today, I've enjoyed reflecting on The Monkees and the crush I once had on Davy Jones. ; )


Image credit: The Monkees and Monkeemobile pics from Wikipedia
Reference: Wikipedia article on The Monkees and The Monkees Home Page

The great escape

Today I'm celebrating the birthday of Harry Houdini

Harry Houdini, a magician, illusionist, and great escape artist was born on this date in 1874. Houdini could free himself from jails, handcuffs, chains, ropes, and straitjackets, often while hanging from a rope in plain sight of the audience. In a famous act, the Chinese Water Torture Cell, he was suspended upside-down in a locked glass-and-steel cabinet full to overflowing with water, holding his breath for more than 3 minutes. You can see Houdini's straitjacket escape on YouTube and watch Criss Angel also perform the trick.

Houdini also worked to debunk self-proclaimed psychics and mediums, exposing frauds who had successfully fooled many scientists and academics. He was a member of a Scientific American committee, which offered a cash prize to any medium who could successfully demonstrate supernatural abilities, but the cash prize was reportedly never awarded. Houdini left his wife a secret code of 10 words randomly chosen from a letter to him written by his friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, fearing that spiritualists would exploit his legacy by pretending to contact him after his death. Although Wikipedia reports some conflicting statements, it was last reported "she steadfastly denied that any of the mediums presented the clue by which she was to recognize a legitimate message." I wonder what Houdini would think about the self-proclaimed medium John Edward. You can see the 20/20 video about John Edward on YouTube. I also wonder what John Edward thinks about Houdini's exposing of frauds and that cash prize which was never awarded. What do you think about this? Post a comment.

Here are some links to more information about Houdini:

• PBS' timeline of Houdini's life
  
• PBS' gallery of the posters collected by magicians, friends, and fans of Houdini advertising his performances and tricks
  
• magictricks.com's site on Houdini
  
• Harry Houdini tribute site

Here's a fan tribute video Harry Houdini Live! of posters and clips about Houdini to Kon Kan's song Harry Houdini

As posted on YouTube by heathywhodini


Today, if you're feeling all tied up and would like to escape, think of Houdini and how easy he made it look.

Image credit: Library of Congress, public domain per Wikipedia

Gone fishin'

Don't worry, don't fret
I'm celebrating each day, you bet!

But I'll be out for a little while
On my spring vacation, starting each day with a smile!

As I bait my hook to catch that fish
I hope you'll be back with me when I return...yes, I wish!

Something to think about while I'm away
Here's a holiday list for each day

Sat., Mar. 15 - Buzzard's Day - Have you been to Buzzard's Roost, Mississippi?
Sun., Mar. 16 - Palm Sunday
Mon., Mar. 17 - St Patrick's Day - Don't forget to wear the 'green'
Tues., Mar. 18 - Supreme Sacrifice Day - An important reminder for Easter Week
Wed., Mar. 19 - Let's Laugh Day, remembering the last episode in 1977 of the Mary Tyler Moore Show
Thurs., Mar. 20 - First day of Spring
Fri., Mar. 21 - Good Friday - Remember the cross
Sat., Mar. 22 - Goof Off Day (Thank goodness it's on a Saturday)

Forever and ever and ever

Celebrating today is just as easy as pi! No, that is not a typo. Today I'm celebrating Pi Day, a day designated for the celebration of the mathematical constant Pi.

Being a mathematician, today's a very special day for me. I won't bore all you non-math geeks with the fascinating details about Pi, its history, and its applications. You can read a summary about it at Wikipedia. Rather, today's blogpost is full of fun information about Pi Day: ways to celebrate, news of a world record holder, cool music videos, and an announcement.

Basically, Pi is the circumference divided by the diameter of a circle. It approximately equals 3.14159. The date of Pi Day celebrations may vary. It may be celebrated on:

• March 14 (3/14 in American date format) at 1:59:26 pm (the Pi minute)
• July 22 (European date format of 22/7)
• Nov 10 (the 314th day of the year, or Nov 9 in leap years)
• Jan 3 at 4:16 for those who don't use the American date format

How should one celebrate Pi Day? Be creative. Here are some ideas:

• March around in a circle at the Pi minute
• Eat a pizza
• Eat pie for dessert
• Use it in every day language (For example, in a survey, on a scale of 1-10 how satisfied are you with..? 3.14) My real-life example: How many pieces of toast did I burn this week by starting to read my e-mail after putting it in the oven? 3.14
• Instead of walking 3 miles today, walk 3.14
• Ride a ferris wheel
• Check the air pressure in your tires today
• Petition Nascar and the IRL to schedule a race day on Pi Day!

Pi is a transcendental number - it isn't rational, nor can it be expressed with fractional exponents. For the non-math geeks, that just means it has an infinite number of digits. The numerical value of Pi truncated to 50 decimal places is:
3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 50288 41971 69399 37510
So far we know it has been calculated to 1.7 trillion digits.

Maybe you thought about memorizing and reciting some digits of Pi today. Even long before computers calculated Pi, memorizing a record number of digits became an obsession for some people. Per Wikipedia, in 2006, a retired Japanese engineer, claimed to have recited 100,000 decimal places, but it has not been verified by Guinness World Records. A 24-year-old graduate student from China currently holds the Guinness world record for remembered digits of Pi at 67,890 digits. It only took him 24 hours and 4 minutes to recite those 67,890 digits without an error.

I'm a musician too and, as you know, you'll likely see a music video on my blog if I can find one on the topic of the day. I was delighted to find numerous great music videos for Pi Day. You can view one below (3.14 Cheers for Al and Cal!!), but I've included links also for my other favorites.

Say that Funky Number, Math Guy


As posted on YouTube by AlgBra314159 (cute member name!)

More great videos:
1) What does Pi sound like? I'm a pianist and was lucky to find a video where you can hear how Pi would sound when played on the piano. Each numerical digit was assigned a specific musical note. The piano solo plays the first 1000 digits of pi. Cool!
2) A music video Mathematical Pi set to the tune of American Pie can be heard online If you want to learn this, see the lyrics and chords also.
3) A rap music video on Pi by pimanrules.
4) A song whose lyrics include simply the digits of Pi.
5) If you'd rather watch a short film, here's a link to Action Pi.

Now for my announcement. I've set my wedding date. I'm going to be married on the most romantic day of the year: Pi Day. I'll be married on March 14 at 1:59:26 pm. At the fear of being labeled a geek forever, why would I choose Pi Day to marry? Because like Pi, our love will continue forever. (awwwwww) You'll all be invited. I'll let you know the year as soon as I secure a fiance. : )

Image credit: interactive mathematics

I can't put it off any longer

This week I'm celebrating Procrastination Week
Are you guilty of putting things off? Postponing things you don't want to do until later, which never seems to come? Maybe the task is too overwhelming, too difficult, or too boring? Maybe there are things of much higher priority that get more focus? Or, maybe it is just much more important to be enjoying life and celebrating, leaving those boring tasks to another day! I tend to be a list-maker.
However, I've noticed that the same 14 items have been on my To-Do list on my Palm Treo since Christmas. Obviously, I'm procrastinating. My family and friends would also say that I'm obviously spending too much time on the Internet too to get everything done.

I found the Procrastinator's Creed on The Humor Bin. Here are a few items from it that you may find humorous:

• I believe that if anything is worth doing, it would have been done already
• I shall never move quickly, except to avoid more work or find excuses
• I will never rush into a job without a lifetime of consideration
• I truly believe that all deadlines are unreasonable regardless of the amount of time given
• I shall always decide not to decide, unless of course I decide to change my mind
• I will never put off tomorrow, what I can forget about forever

I dedicated some time tonight (procrastinating again on my to-do list) to find some resources to help me conquer this problem:

• From Psychology Today, Procrastination: Ten things to know
• From Psychology Today, Procrastination Test (but I haven't taken the test yet)
• Five strategies to putting off putting off
• What is your time worth?

I found the song Procrastination by Amy Winehouse:

As posted on YouTube by pergonse


Today, although I'm going to try to manage my time well, I think I'll still focus on the things that are most important to me, regardless of what the list has on it, especially after reviewing what my time is actually worth. Concerning the 14 items on that To-Do list, I'll eventually get around to it. But for today, life's too short to get hung up on the many things on my list which probably don't really even matter much at all.




Image credits: CafePress, lifehacker, and unknown

Come here, I want you

Today I'm celebrating the first speech transmitted by telephone

On this date in 1876, the first discernible speech was transmitted over a telephone system. Alexander Graham Bell (who had just received a patent 3 days earlier) summoned his assistant in another room by saying "Mr. Watson, come here, I want you." Bell trained teachers of the deaf and was a professor of vocal physiology. In his free time, he experimented with sound waves, convinced that it would be possible to transmit speech over a telegraph-like system. With the aid of Thomas Watson, they converted Bell's ideas into a practical form creating a device to transmit speech vibrations electrically between two receivers. In the first tests in June 1875, no intelligible words were transmitted but sounds resembling human speech were heard. In March 1876 Bell's telephone was successfully tested in his Boston home. It was publicly demonstrated in May before the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston and successfully tested over a 2-mile distance between Boston and Cambridgeport in October of that year.

There have been numerous claims and counterclaims about the history of the invention of the telephone and patent lawsuits. However, Bell retained the patent. Bell is widely credited as the inventor of the first practical telephone but others provided groundbreaking research, development work, and subsequent improvements. It's been told that Bell and his partners offered to sell the patent to Western Union for $100,000 but its president balked, countering that the telephone was nothing but a toy. Two years later, that same man told colleagues that he would consider it a bargain if he could get the patent for $25 million.

Some interesting statistics about those early years:
1877 - 3,000 phones installed
1886 - over 150,000 people in the US owned telephones
1878 - first commercial switchboard began operation (21 telephones on 8 lines; many people were on a party line)
1878 - first telephone directory published - a single paper of 50 names
1878 - first telephone installed in White House; the first outgoing call was to Bell
1889 - first public coin telephone
1892 - Bell controlled 240,000 telephones

This invention change communications drastically. Just think about the history of how messages were communicated in the past, by couriers through the ages, carrier pigeons, The Pony Express, and the telegraph. There have been significant advances just in my lifetime. Things I remember...

• rotary telephones
• sharing a party line with our neighbors: we answered 2 long rings
• a 10-minute limit on the house phone
• having to contact the operator to dial a long distance number
• failing miserably at running the college switchboard in my single day of that workstudy assignment
• the only option on a busy signal was to call back later (no voicemail, no auto call return)
• answering the phone and having no idea who was on the other end (no caller id)
• answering the phone without the worry of it being a telemarketer
• always keeping a dime in your wallet for that emergency collect call home if in trouble
• using the pay phone on the dorm hall
• attaching the phone to a coupler to connect the computer to the university network
• those 'bag' phones, then called transportables
• having dedicated voice and data lines so that I could talk on the phone while connected to a computer network
• having a single telephone number

You may have a collection of old phones in your attic or basement and chuckle about how those devices have changed. Here's a Website devoted to pictures of old phones that you may enjoy. Now people walk around chatting on phone calls using little gadgets attached to their ears and make calls from automobiles without using a telephone. Practically everyone owns a cellular phone and many no longer have landline home phones. Telephone calls are made from home by many without a landline by using a computer and VoIP technology. We now register to state and federal 'Do Not Call' lists to keep telemarketers from calling us. Some people use phone codes to hide their phone number or caller id spoofing services to display a false number.

As you may have noticed on my blog, I try to find a music connection with most of my blogs posts. Bell himself was a self-taught musician. Music is definitely connected to the telephone device and its technology. Music is routinely delivered over telephone lines, while on hold. People have used the telephone keypad and its tones to either recreate songs or to create new songs too. One website has the codes you can use to play music on your phone by pressing buttons, including Happy Birthday, Auld Lang Syne, Frere Jacques, Mary Had a Little Lamb, and Louie, Louie. There are lots of songs written about telephones and calling one another. Here's a fav of mine by ELO that you may remember:
ELO (Electric Light Orchestra)- Telephone Line


As posted on YouTube by flybynightvideo

It turns out that Bell was not only a great inventor, but he also said some smart things in his lifetime. Here are some things attributed to Bell that I like:

• I believe in the future wires will unite the head offices of telephone companies in different cities, and a man in one part of the country may communicate by word of mouth with another in a distant place.
• Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.
• Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.
• What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.
• Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds.
• When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.
  

Today, I'm marveling at the wonders of the technology developed by Bell and what advancements have been made through the cooperation of so many. Today I hope that you also see the value of cooperation of many minds and also hope that we don't miss great innovations by staring at the closed doors in our lives.

Reference:
This Day in History 1876
Wikipedia articles on Alexander Graham Bell and Invention of the Telephone
Privateline.com: Telephone History

Image credit: The Library of Congress

Spin and win!

Today I'm celebrating the birthday of Danny Sullivan

On this date in 1950 Indy car racer Danny Sullivan was born in Louisville, Kentucky. Sullivan dominated Indy Car racing in the 1980s. The Auto Channel once described Sullivan in his heyday: he had the classic good looks of a Cary Grant, the schoolboy image of a Robert Redford, the oratory skills of David Frost and the nerve of Chuck Yeager.

Sullivan is likely most remembered for his win of the 1985 Indy 500 after a full-circle spin on the track. I don't think I'll ever forget seeing that red and white Penske car spinning through 360 degreees between turns one and two at Indy after passing Mario Andretti for the lead in the race's 120th lap. After returning from the pits where all four tires were changed, I was ecstatic to see Sullivan return to the track and pass Andretti a second time 20 laps later to go on for the win. You can see that memorable spin right here:

As posted on YouTube by IcedBudweiser
You can watch the final laps and his victory at the 1985 Indy 500 also on YouTube.

Some drivers perform a variety of jobs before becoming famous on the racetrack. I'm currently cheering for Carl Edwards, who was a substitute teacher before racing for Nascar (having spent my time in the classroom too). Danny Sullivan likely worked the most number of unusual jobs for the racecar drivers I know, having worked as a cab driver, a waiter at Maxwell Plum's, a lumberjack in the Adirondacks, and a chicken ranch hand before his racing career. After racing, he tried acting (with appearances on Miami Vice and All My Children), being a racing spokesperson, and a television racing correspondent.

I've been a racing fan all my life. I especially like open-wheel racing. However, I'm worried about the future of open-wheel racing in the US. I never liked the Indy Car split into CART and IRL racing leagues. I'm now concerned about the open-wheel drivers fleeing to careers in the lucrative Nascar world and what impact it will have. Apparently I'm not alone in believing that there should be an end to any old feud and a merger for the best future of the sport. Here's a link to a Jim Clash interview with Danny Sullivan, where he talks about what is needed for open wheel racing to take on Nascar. I wonder if it's too late. Here's a favorite video of mine on Indy:
I am Indy

Add to My Profile More Videos
As posted on MySpaceTV videos


Happy racing!


Image credit: This pic is all around the Net and I don't know its source, but I got it from Andesign with Google Images

And that's the way it is

Today I'm celebrating one of the most trusted men in America

On this date in 1981, Walter Cronkite signed off of the CBS Evening News for the last time after 19 years as anchorman. In opinion polls of the 1970s and 1980s, Walter Cronkite was often cited as the most trusted man in America, through his coverage of such important news events like the Cuban missile crisis, the assassination of President John F Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and the Watergate scandal. He can watch his coverage and reaction to the Apollo moon landing on YouTube, one of the few times when Cronkite was admittedly speechless.

Before joining CBS, Cronkite worked for the United Press, becoming a top reporter in World War II, covering the Nuremberg trials, and serving in Moscow for two years. In his early years at CBS he covered the first nationally-televised convention coverage. In 1962 he became anchorman of the CBS Evening News. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter in 1981. His trademark phrase "And that's the way it is..." closed each newscast.

I can recall watching Walter Cronkite each evening. I fondly remembered those times tonight as I watched the evening news.

Image credit: answers.com

Happy birthday to the most popular song in the English language and to Justin too!

Rumor has it that today is the anniversary of the publishing of the song "Happy Birthday to You" I've heard that it was first published as a second verse to a song "Good Morning to All" in a song book for kindergarten children. However, in 1935 the song was officially published and copyrighted. You can read the lyrics from the current copyright owner's website. You can read the entire story about the song at Snopes.com.

Today, I'm not only celebrating the birthday of the birthday song, I'm celebrating the birthday of my youngest nephew, Justin. We had a great evening together -- out to dinner and then shopping to buy his gift with the gift card I gave him.

By the way, at the restaraunt (to be unnamed), as they delivered his birthday dessert, the wait staff sang the birthday song. Hmmm....I wonder if they've acquired a license there. I doubt that they even know about its copyright. Well, it was only sung with a small family group and about a dozen people seated nearby overheard. I support copyright, but it seems a bit sad that this song can't be sung freely. I wonder why they extended the copyright -- for the cash, I'm sure, since I read that annual royalties are ~ $2M.

One of the most famous renditions of the song was likely "Happy Birthday Mr President" sung by Marilyn Monroe to President John F Kennedy. You can see it here:

As posted on YouTube by dumbbrunettegal1

Follow your heart, follow your dreams

Today I'm celebrating Progress Day!

Did you know that today is the only day on the calendar that is actually a command? Think about it, March 4th reads as March Forth. Today is a day to march forward in life and reach your fullest potential. One company once designated today as a personal fulfillment day, a day to celebrate the amazing potential within yourself -- to commemorate your strengths, vision and unlimited possibilities. Today might be a day for you to reflect on your goals and evaluate your progress. For example, many people set resolutions for the year, but they're often forgotten before Valentine's Day. Here's a day that you can quickly review those resolutions and start fresh -- marching forth to show progress. Maybe you're thinking longer range plans -- today might be a day to consider what goals you'd like to accomplish in the remainder of your life. What adventure would you like to complete? What would you love to achieve? Check out the Bucket Lists wiki for ideas on popular and incredible life goals to put on your bucket list or list of life goals. Then, record your list and make a plan.

If you like to surf through YouTube, you can see lots of videos where YouTube users log their progress -- from weight loss, while in recovery, while in chemotherapy, while learning new skills (playing the guitar), or just silly stuff (logging a daily picture).

Today, I hope that you follow your heart, follow your dreams...I believe in you!
I hope that you'll post a comment on this blog or on Bucket Lists to report your progress!
I Believe in You by Il Divo and Celine Dion


As posted on YouTube by pa9us


Today I hope that you remember as R Kelly sings in I Believe I Can Fly:
If I can see it, then I can do it
If I just believe it, there's nothing to it.

I Believe I Can Fly by R Kelly


As posted on YouTube by AuricSmith


Image credit: pirmarketing . com

From here or there to anywhere using 50 words or less

On this date in 1904, Theodor Seuss Geisel, a great American writer and cartoonist was born. You may better recognize his pen name Dr. Seuss. The rhyming text and outlandish creatures are trademarks for the 44 children's books that he wrote and illustrated, including The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. You may not know that Geisel also used the pen name Theo. LeSieg (which is Geisel spelled backwards) for the books he wrote but were illustrated by others.

In 1954 after Life magazine published a report on illiteracy among school children concluding that children weren't learning to read because the books were boring, Seuss' publisher challenged him. The publisher gave Seuss a list of 400 words that were felt important and asked him to cut it to 250 and write a book using only those words. Nine months later Seuss completed the Cat in the Hat, which is now ranked as the #9 on the all-time best selling children's hardcover book list.

There's also a rumor that in 1960 Bennett Cerf bet $50 that Seuss couldn't write an entire book using only fifty different words. The result is the book Green Eggs and Ham. This book is ranked as #4 on the list of all-time best-selling children's hardcover books. You may be curious what was on the list of 50 words. Here they are: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you.

The Dr. Seuss books achieved significant international success and remain very popular with children. Although Seuss devoted most of his life to writing children's books, he never had any children himself. He once said (in reference to children), You make 'em, I amuse 'em.

Here are some other quotes that are attributed to Dr Seuss. You may have said some of these things yourself not realizing that they originated with Dr Seuss:

• I meant what I said and I said what I meant.
  
  
• How did it get so late so soon?
  
  
• You're in pretty good shape for the shape you are in.
  
  
• Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.
  
  
• Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
  
  
• Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.
  
  
• You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the guy who'll decide where to go.
  
  
• From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.

I read many of the Dr Seuss books as a child. I looked forward to the package arriving in the mail to our house with the Dr. Seuss books. I was puzzled why they stopped coming when I was young, and learning years later that the subscription was canceled by my parents. I think now how nice it would be to have that entire collection!

Later this month, I'll be looking forward to seeing the new movie based on Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who. You can watch the movie trailer here:



As posted on YouTube by themovieinsider.com

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