My friend octoberskies has asked me to post a prayer and general assistance request for a little boy named Jacob who has recently been diagnosed with the disease known as Hypophosphatasia.

Toby has given me a link here that gives some more details about the disease as well as ways you can help Jacob to receive treatment. 'Depending on the severity of the skeletal disease, there may be deformity of the limbs and chest. Pneumonia can result if chest distortion is severe. Recurrent fractures can occur.Teeth may be lost prematurely, have wide pulp (inside) chambers, and thereby be predisposed to cavities. As yet, there is no cure for hypophosphatasia and no proven medical therapy. Some medications are being evaluated. Treatment is generally directed towards preventing or correcting the symptoms or complications.'

Toby is involved with this because she is a friend of the band, State of Man, whose drummer little Jacob is related to.

Please visit this link or octoberskies' site to find out more about how you can help. The goal is to raise enough money to cover medical expenses and to send Jacob to the Shriners Hospital in St. Louis, MO where they have a special department set up to study and treat people with this baffling disease.

Even if you canny donate, you can still remember Jacob in your prayers and thoughts. No child should have to be going through this, and when you think that there is no cure at this time, it's very scary. Jacob needs our help.

Thank you. :)

Hashi made a script thingie last night to help him with his class work. He is amazing! ;)

By MIKE LARKIN
Scotsman
30 October 2008

A FATHER jumped into a burning building and dragged out his unconscious neighbour – then dashed back in to save a litter of puppies.

Jamie McDade, 31, smashed his way into the house to drag Winnie Brannigan through choking smoke into the fresh air.

And when he realised a litter of new-born pups was still trapped inside, he risked his life again by charging in to rescue them as well.

( Read on )

Hugh Hefner poses with his three girlfriends, from left, Kendra Wilkinson, Bridget Marquardt and Holly Madison[Photo: AP]

**Yeah, okay, like I care about Hugh Hefner, male slut, but this article had some waaay interesting details on his female-type arrangements which I found quite incredulous in a way akin to suddenly passing a flaming 10 car smash-up on the freeway. I include it for social commentary and prurient interest.

( Is the party over? )

Aww, this gave me my first good laugh of the day. I have to smile every time I look at it. :)



Three Stooges Gallery

He would have been 68 today. Happy Birthday John. ♥

Ever since I was a wee girl, I have not been fond of circuses or clowns. I thought the painted faces garish and the costumes ridiculous. The humour didna move me. The only clown I was attracted to was the sad clown named Emmett Kelly. I could identify with his plight. The world expected you to be happy and smiling, and your heart was broken and you could not. You looked upon the world in confusion.

This morning I was looking for 'Sunday morning art' on Google and found this painting of another sad and silent clown, Otto Griebling - [Image]. I post it here for those of you whose hearts canny quite soar this morning. Know that you are not alone.

Paul Newman 1925-2008

By Adam Bernstein
Washington Post
Saturday, September 27, 2008

Paul Newman, 83, the actor and sex symbol who surged to stardom by playing loners as well as criminal and moral outlaws -- anything to downplay his astonishing looks -- died of cancer Friday at his farmhouse near Westport, Conn.

Newman was an Academy Award-winning actor and acclaimed director, and he used his fame to propel his political activism, race car driving and philanthropy. He donated all the profits from his Newman's Own food company -- more than $250 million -- to charities and social welfare organizations.

Brooding and sinewy, with luminous blue eyes and a husky voice, Newman resembled a preppy Greek God in his earliest screen roles. He quickly rebelled against conventional casting that tried to turn him into a pretty-boy alternative to Marlon Brando and James Dean. He became known as an introspective and nonconformist performer -- a perfect anti-hero idol for the socially rebellious 1960s and 1970s.

In many of Newman's best films -- "The Hustler," "Hud," "Harper," "Cool Hand Luke," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Sting," "Slap Shot," "The Verdict," "Nobody's Fool" and "The Color of Money" (for which he won the Oscar) -- he played amoral rats, genial louts, self-destructive idealists, drunkards and has-beens. Some of his characters redeem themselves by being defeated or killed, and others just continue bumming along.

Newman hated to see his characters triumph on charm alone. No one, he said, would pay money to see such a beautiful man win the woman and save the day. Off-screen, he mocked his sex-symbol status and said that his personality was closest to the vulgar, second-rate hockey coach he played in "Slap Shot" (1977). His approach likely saved his career as he matured into a disciplined performer, one of the most enduring and polished of screen stars.


( >>More on Paul Newman )

Awww, I think this is so cute that even though Sara 'disabled' Hashi's bigcatpants melo due to extraneous reasons which we will not mention , his li'l BCP logo still figured prominently on the Meloversary '08 party cake this weekend. ;)

Big Cat Pants Forever!




Image source

Keyboard player and founder member of Pink Floyd

Adam Sweeting
Guardian
16 September 2008

Though Pink Floyd's performance at Live 8 in July 2005 prompted speculation about a more permanent reunion, the death from cancer of the band's keyboard player Rick Wright, at the age of 65, puts paid to the notion. Though Wright was even more publicity-averse than the rest of the Floyd, he was one of the group's founding members and, particularly in the early years, was regarded as one of its creative powerhouses, even if the spotlight tended to follow the erratically brilliant Syd Barrett.

Richard William Wright • 1943 - 2008

Wright was born in north-west London, and after attending the independent Haberdashers' Aske's school, he met future bandmates Nick Mason and Roger Waters while studying architecture at what was then the Regent Street Polytechnic. Hence the first band they formed was named the Architectural Abdabs (having briefly been Sigma 6), though the addition of Camberwell Art School student Barrett prompted a name-change to the Pink Floyd Sound, in honour of American bluesmen Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. This changed into Pink Floyd.

( Continued )