On A Pale Horse

Ok, Tim Hardaway, what's the big f-ing deal. So someone's different then you... so what? But it's not really my place to judge him like that... isn't this America, freedom of speech, as long as it's not in a burning theater? Whatever, the world is so fractured at this point it's going to take a lot more then me bitching on an itty bitty blog. I mean really, what the hell can I do? What the hell can anybody do?
Barbara Gittings didn't feel like that. She was one of the pioneering lesbian activist in the United States. During her first year at Northwestern she became close to another female student, this prompted her to examine her own sexuality. In 1958 she founded the New York chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis. Later she became an editor of The Ladder, a lesbian newsletter. During the 1970's she joined the movement to have the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality as a mental disorder. Ms. Gittings also championed the movement to include gay literature in the American library; in 2003 she was made a honorary member of the American Library Association.

Ms. Gittings passed away from breast cancer. She was with survived by partner of 46 years, Kay Tobin Lahusen and her sister.

July 31, 1932 - February 18, 2007
RIP

sources:
Philadelphia Citypaper
GLBT History Month

Labels: 1913 births, 2007 February deaths, activist, cancer

Where oh where does the time go...
Oh yeah, I know, sitting in front of the damn TV, watching every bad basic cable show known to man, that is if I can stay awake long enough to actually make it to the final credits. As of late I've been spending more and more time on the love seat with the cat on my chest and one of the dogs at my side (no easy feat considering dog in question weighs 63 lbs at his vet appointment this past week); but at least I'm not stuck with one channel as it was back in the day.

Alder, originally born in Vienna, Austria, migrated to the US via England during World War 2 and started his career with Zenith in 1937. He worked with military communications until the war ended and then directed his attention to television. In 1955 the first concept of the TV remote invented by Eugene Polley, this was called the Flashomatic. The Flashomatic was popular but flawed. Robert Adler improved on the concept by having a remote that worked on ultra high frequencies that were generated by clicking on aluminum rods, this early version didn't require batteries at all. In the 1960's he further tweaked his invention by having the remote create ultra frequencies sounds electronically.

Adler continued working outside of the television industries and was granted 180 US patents, his most recent on February 1st of this year. In 1998 he, along with other Zenith engineers, were presented with an Emmy for "pioneering work in the development of the remote control".

Mr Alder passed away from heart failure in a Boise, Idaho nursing home.

1913 - February 15, 2007 - R.I.P.

sources:
Alder web information
Yahoo News

Labels: 1913 births, 2007 February deaths, heart failure, inventor

In the summer of 1985, while away at summer camp, I had my one and only big sister. Her name was Laurie and she had to be the sweetest person I’d ever met in my whole life with an incredibly angelic voice. I wrote my mom and dad about her and they wrote back that they couldn’t wait to meet her. You can’t imagine how excited I was when Parents Day rolled around and I pointed her out when she sang the National Anthem at the Swim Show, I didn’t realize my parents’ jaws could drop that low. To me Laurie was the best-est person in the whole world; to my parents she was black.

The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964 just 8 years before I was born. I know attitudes don’t change over night but every once in awhile my parents or grandparents will say or do something that blows my mind and that at one time in America it was all perfectly normal. It’s just the color of skin we’re not that different underneath it all.

Right down the road we’ve got The Henry Ford Museum that proudly displays the Rosa Parks Bus and patrons can walk through and see that a little place like that made a huge difference in the lives of so many people.

As a side note, I was in Atlanta on Monday for business. A co-worker, from Michigan, and her date, a local resident, were giving me the nickel tour showing me the sites. One thing that kept on coming up was that the city was still really segregated, and even some of her date’s comments were archaic. Pretty mind blowing.

Mrs. Parks made her home in Detroit in 1959 and worked for Congressman John Conyers. She passed away Monday, October 24th

February 13, 1913 - October 24, 2005
RIP

Labels: 1913 births, 2005 October deaths, activist, historical, natural causes, political