Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Remembering John Lennon

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2010

I’m not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I’ve always been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I’m one of those people.

- John Lennon

From John Lennon: the New York Years; text and images by Bob Gruen. Publisher: New York: Tabori, Stewart & Chang, 2005


ON THIS DAY

On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman ended the life of John Lennon.  Thirty years later, Lennon is still being mourned, even by many who were not yet born on the day he was shot.  His life and his legacy are still being discussed.  His music still resonates with young people.

This has been an extraordinary year for remembering the founder of The Beatles, a year full of milestones.  October 9, 2010 marked the 70th anniversary of John Lennon's birth (See my blog entry for October 9, 2010).  Nowhere Boy, a movie about John's early days in Liverpool, was released earlier this year and today marks the 30th anniversary of his assassination outside the Manhattan apartment building where he lived.

Three decades after his death, John Lennon lives on in his music. His songs and his lyrics will always be with us. Mark David Chapman could never have taken that away from us.

To watch a video of various announcements of Lennon's death 30 years ago, including those of Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football.and Ted Koppel on Nightline, click on the link below.

http://weblogs.variety.com/on_the_air/2010/12/how-tv-announced-john-lennons-death-30-years-ago.html


IMMACULATE MISCONCEPTION

Today, December 8th is the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Many people confuse the term “immaculate conception” with “virgin birth” and use the two interchangeably. This is not correct. They do not mean the same thing at all. According to Catholic doctrine, the “Immaculate Conception” means that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was conceived without the stain of original sin and was preserved from all sin. It has nothing to do with the conception of Christ.

Many Catholics females, born on December 8th, have been named Mary or variations of the name. One of them was Mary, Queen of Scots. Today is the 468th anniversary of her birth. She was born on December 8, 1542. I have always considered Mary, Queen of Scots to be one of the most intriguing historical figures.


LANGUAGE CORNER

Your word for today is parthenogenesis. “Parthenogenesis” is a term meaning virgin birth. “Parthenogenesis comes from the Greek “parthenos” meaning “virgin” and “genesis” meaning “birth” or “origin.” It refers to asexual reproduction, usually of an unfertilized female gamete (egg or mature reproductive cell), by which the growth and development of the cell occurs without fertilization of a male. It occurs especially among lower plants and invertebrate animals.


RIDDLE ME THIS

What did one strawberry say to the other strawberry?

ANSWER

We’re in the same jam.


SPORTS

Congratulations to Pat Gillick, former General Manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, for being elected to the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown. He deserves it. Now I hope that Roberto Alomar is next. Alomar should be ranked as one of the greatest second basemen ever. The late Tom Cheek deserves to be in Cooperstown too.

- Joanne