The Universal Cat


Listen To These Lovely Cats. No, Actually, Don't – NPR
by ROBERT KRULWICH
May 04, 2014

"Oh, evolution," writes Mara Grunbaum in her new, about-to-come-out book, WTF Evolution, "You were doing so well with the lynx. You made it a fierce and graceful hunter, you gave it a luxurious spotted coat, you gave it pretty yellow eyes and tufted ears — and then you made it sound like this …."

What crazy evolutionary logic led to these vocalizations? The first lynx, the one facing the camera, sounds like a creaking door with squeaky hinges, the second one like an ambulance siren with a weak, failing battery. Close your eyes and you're in a zombie movie, with unearthly howls and strange, shared silences.

But, Why?

I looked up "lynx vocalizations" to find out why they sound like this. Apparently, explaining weird cat sounds is not yet a major scholarly pursuit. Mel and Fiona Sunquist, in their book Wild Cats of the World, say lynxes can "mew, spit, hiss and growl; they also yowl, chatter, wah-wah, gurgle, and purr." But the Sunquists don't say why. Another scholar, Gustav Peters, says lynx mating calls (Is that what we heard? Or was that just two lynxes yakking?) are "a series of intense mews." Intense, for sure. Mews? Those lynxes weren't mewing.

No, maybe it's as Mara supposes in her new book. Designers — be they all powerful, or natural selectors operating randomly — have their off days. How does Mara explain lynx vocalizations? This way: "Go home, evolution, you are drunk."




That range of vocalizations explains why the common house cat has so many different sounds, too. Siamese cats make the famous “baby crying” sound, which is just a very guttural and deep-throated meow. The first time I heard one I thought it might have rabies. I was assured that they all sound that way, so I adopted the cat and came to love her very much. She, like my calico, was decidedly “feisty” and I saw her jump almost 20 feet straight up when a dog came running through the yard. She landed on a pine bough overhead.

Then there are the full range of howls, yowls and screeches that fighting tom cats make. Too often I have been awakened at two AM by that sound. My calico Sally Petunia had to share the waiting room at the vet's with a playful 6 month German shepherd puppy one day. She literally snarled at him loudly, and he did back away very fast. His owner took control of him from then on. I have heard cats make sounds that are almost as if they are trying to talk like a human, which the “chatter” and “wah-wah” could describe. But of course, finally, there is the lovely sound – the purr. Even tigers and lions purr, I am told. I personally think all those sounds are “beautiful” in their way, as their menacing slinking motion when hunting is. Not every animal has to sound like a canary, after all. Cats are beautiful, but they are also predators. Predators aren't villains. That's just their role in nature.

THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/bump.html



Scottish Prayer
Traditional
From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!


When the Whole Earth Was Overrun with Ghosts

England

Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Savior's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallowed and so gracious is the time.
--Marcellus.

So have I heard and do in part believe it.
--Horatio.

So says the immortal Shakespeare [Hamlet, act 1, scene 1]; and the truth thereof few nowadays, I hope, will call in question. Grose observes, too, that those born on Christmas Day cannot see spirits; which is another incontrovertible fact.
What a happiness this must have been seventy or eighty years ago and upwards, to those chosen few who had the good luck to be born on the eve of this festival of all festivals; when the whole earth was so overrun with ghosts, boggles, bloody-bones, spirits, demons, ignis fatui, brownies, bugbears, black dogs, specters, shellycoats, scarecrows, witches, wizards, barguests, Robin-Goodfellows, hags, night-bats, scrags, breaknecks, fantasms, hobgoblins, hobhoulards, boggy-boes, dobbies, hob-thrusts, fetches, kelpies, warlocks, mock-beggars, mum-pokers, Jemmy-burties, urchins, satyrs, pans, fauns, sirens, tritons, centaurs, calcars, nymphs, imps, incubuses, spoorns, men-in-the-oak, hell-wains, fire-drakes, kit-a-can-sticks, Tom-tumblers, melch-dicks, larrs, kitty-witches, hobby-lanthorns, Dick-a-Tuesdays, Elf-fires, Gyl-burnt-tales, knockers, elves, rawheads, Meg-with-the-wads, old-shocks, ouphs, pad-foots, pixies, pictrees, giants, dwarfs, Tom-pokers, tutgots, snapdragons, sprets, spunks, conjurers, thurses, spurns, tantarrabobs, swaithes, tints, tod-lowries, Jack-in-the-Wads, mormos, changelings, redcaps, yeth-hounds, colt-pixies, Tom-thumbs, black-bugs, boggarts, scar-bugs, shag-foals, hodge-pochers, hob-thrushes, bugs, bull-beggars, bygorns, bolls, caddies, bomen, brags, wraiths, waffs, flay-boggarts, fiends, gallytrots, imps, gytrashes, patches, hob-and-lanthorns, gringes, boguests, bonelesses, Peg-powlers, pucks, fays, kidnappers, gallybeggars, hudskins, nickers, madcaps, trolls, robinets, friars' lanthorns, silkies, cauld-lads, death-hearses, goblins, hob-headlesses, bugaboos, kows, or cowes, nickies, nacks [necks], waiths, miffies, buckies, ghouls, sylphs, guests, swarths, freiths, freits, gy-carlins [Gyre-carling], pigmies, chittifaces, nixies, Jinny-burnt-tails, dudmen, hell-hounds, dopple-gangers, boggleboes, bogies, redmen, portunes, grants, hobbits, hobgoblins, brown-men, cowies, dunnies, wirrikows, alholdes, mannikins, follets, korreds, lubberkins, cluricauns, kobolds, leprechauns, kors, mares, korreds, puckles korigans, sylvans, succubuses, blackmen, shadows, banshees, lian-hanshees, clabbernappers, Gabriel-hounds, mawkins, doubles, corpse lights or candles, scrats, mahounds, trows, gnomes, sprites, fates, fiends, sibyls, nicknevins, whitewomen, fairies, thrummy-caps, cutties, and nisses, and apparitions of every shape, make, form, fashion, kind and description, that there was not a village in England that had not its own peculiar ghost.
Nay, every lone tenement, castle, or mansion-house, which could boast of any antiquity had its bogle, its specter, or its knocker. The churches, churchyards, and crossroads were all haunted. Every green lane had its boulder-stone on which an apparition kept watch at night. Every common had its circle of fairies belonging to it. And there was scarcely a shepherd to be met with who had not seen a spirit!



Source: The Denham Tracts, edited by James Hardy, (London: Folklore Society, 1895), vol. 2, pp. 76-80.
This two volume work brings together various folklore publications of Michael Aislabie Denham first published between 1846 and 1859.
Denham's title for this piece is "Ghosts Never Appear on Christmas Eve!" His copious footnotes have been omitted.

Ukrainian Agreement April 17, 2014


Diplomats agree on steps to ease tensions in Ukraine
CBS/AP April 17, 2014

GENEVA -- Top diplomats from the United States, European Union, Russia and Ukraine reached agreement after marathon talks Thursday on immediate steps to ease the crisis in Ukraine.

The tentative agreement puts on hold - for now at least - additional economic sanctions the West had prepared to impose on Russia if the talks were fruitless. And that will ease international pressure both on Moscow and nervous European Union nations that depend on Russia for their energy.

Reached after seven hours of negotiation in Geneva, the agreement requires all sides to refrain from violence, intimidation or provocative actions. It calls for the disarming of all illegally armed groups and for control of buildings seized by pro-Russian separatists to be turned back to authorities.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters that in one eastern Ukrainian city notices were sent to Jewish people saying that they had to identify themselves as Jews "or suffer the consequences."

"In the year 2014, after all of the miles traveled and all of the journey of history, this is not just intolerable; it's grotesque," said Kerry. "It is beyond unacceptable, and any of the people who engage in these kinds of activities - from whatever party or whatever ideology or whatever place they crawl out of - there is no place for that."

Jewish community leaders in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk told the Washington-based National Conference Supporting Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States and Eurasia that the flyers were "a provocation" and that "all authorities have denied any connection to the flyers."

Kerry also said that members of the Russian Orthodox Church in eastern Ukraine were recently threatened that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church "was somehow going to attack them."
"That kind of behavior, that kind of threat, has no place," Kerry said.

Kerry called the deal the result of a "good day's work" but emphasized that the words on paper must be followed by concrete actions. He said he had warned Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that Moscow would soon feel the brunt of new sanctions should it not follow through on its commitments under the agreement.

"It is important that these words are translated immediately into actions," Kerry said at a news briefing. "None of us leaves here with a sense that the job is done because of words on a paper."

He added that if Moscow does not abide by the agreement, something that would be clear in the coming days, "we will have no choice but to impose further costs on Russia."

In Washington, President Obama conveyed skepticism about Russia's promises and said the United States and its allies are ready to impose fresh sanctions.
"My hope is we do see follow through," Mr. Obama said at an impromptu news conference at the White House.

"The question now becomes, Will they use the influence they have used in a disruptive way so that Ukrainians ... can start back on the road to prosperity and democracy," the president said.

Mr. Obama did not say what additional sanctions might be in the offing if commitments made by Lavrov do not materialize.

On Wednesday, the president expressed a similar sentiment in an interview with CBS News.

"Each time Russia takes these kinds of steps that are designed to destabilize Ukraine and violate their sovereignty, there are going to be consequences," Mr. Obama told CBS News chief White House correspondent Major Garrett before referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Mr. Putin's decisions aren't just bad for Ukraine. Over the long term, they're going to be bad for Russia."

The agreement also gives amnesty to protesters who comply with the demands, except those found guilty of capital crimes.

Monitors with the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe will be tasked with helping Ukraine authorities and local communities comply with the requirements outlined in the agreement.

It said Kiev's plans to reform its constitution and transfer more power from the central government to regional authorities must be inclusive, transparent and accountable - including through the creation of a broad national dialogue.
Speaking at a separate news conference, Lavrov said the OSCE mission "should play a leading role" moving forward.

Earlier, Putin criticized the U.S. and its European allies for having what he called a double standard concerning Ukraine and said he hoped he would not have to deploy troops to Ukraine.

But he also seemed to keep the door open for Russia to recognize Ukraine's presidential election set for May 25, softening his previous demand that it must be postponed until the fall and preceded by a referendum on broader powers for the regions.

Andrii Deshchytsia, Ukraine's foreign minister, said the "joint efforts to launch the de-escalation ... will be a test for Russia to show that it is really willing to have stability in this region."

Ukraine was hoping to use the Geneva talks - the first of their kind over the crisis that threatens the new government in Kiev - to placate Russia and calm hostilities with its neighbor even as the U.S. prepared a new round of sanctions to punish Moscow for what it regards as fomenting unrest.

Meanwhile, Russia was honing a strategy of its own: Push the West as far as possible without provoking crippling sanctions against its own financial and energy sectors or a military confrontation with NATO.

In a television appearance in Moscow on Thursday, Putin denied claims that Russian special forces were provoking unrest in eastern Ukraine. He called the Ukrainian government's effort to quash the unrest a "crime."

In Washington, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the U.S. would send non-lethal assistance to Ukraine's military in light of what he called Russia's ongoing destabilizing actions there. He told a Pentagon news conference that the military assistance to Ukraine will include medical supplies, helmets, water purification units and power generators.

Ukraine has asked for military assistance from the U.S., a request that was believed to include lethal aid such as weapons and ammunition. Obama administration officials have said they were not actively considering lethal assistance for fear it could escalate an already tense situation.

The U.S. has already sent Ukraine other assistance, such as pre-packaged meals for its military.

In Brussels, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the military alliance would increase its presence in Eastern Europe, including flying more sorties over the Baltic region west of Ukraine and deploying allied warships to the Baltic Sea and the eastern Mediterranean. NATO's supreme commander in Europe, U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, told reporters that ground forces also could be involved at some point, but he gave no details.




THIS IS WORTH REPEATING:

“U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters that in one eastern Ukrainian city notices were sent to Jewish people saying that they had to identify themselves as Jews "or suffer the consequences."

"In the year 2014, after all of the miles traveled and all of the journey of history, this is not just intolerable; it's grotesque," said Kerry. "It is beyond unacceptable, and any of the people who engage in these kinds of activities - from whatever party or whatever ideology or whatever place they crawl out of - there is no place for that."

Thank you, Mr. Kerry!

This too needs scrutiny:

“Earlier, Putin criticized the U.S. and its European allies for having what he called a double standard concerning Ukraine and said he hoped he would not have to deploy troops to Ukraine.” What??

This is a summary on the points that were agreed upon on Thursday:

A hold is placed on further economic sanctions for this time
All parties are to forgo all violence, intimidation or provocation
All illegally armed groups are to disarm
All seized buildings are to be returned to Ukrainian control
Amnesty to all protesters who comply unless guilty of capital crimes
International monitors will aid Ukraine, Russia and local governments in complying with the agreement
Ukrainian government will reform its constitution and transfer more power from the central government to regional authorities
There will be developed “a broad national dialogue”

NATO meanwhile has promised to increase its presence in the Baltic area militarily and US Air Force General Philip Breedlove stated that “at some point” ground troops may be sent.

Time will tell how well the two sides will work together on this. An article from today's CBS website included several complaints already about the agreement from both Kiev and the pro-Russian separatists. When the OSCE international monitors arrive it will almost certainly help. They should be very active in reporting abuses, however, and the NATO and EU powers should respond to the situation effectively when they do occur.

On May 25 the Ukrainians will hold their election and some issues may be ironed out. The separatists are presently refusing to acknowledge the interim government in Kiev. Maybe they will like the newly elected officials better.

VERTICAL FARMING 2014





Food Scraps To Fuel Vertical Farming's Rise In Chicago – NPR
by April Fulton
April 09, 2014

From plant factories fueled by the magenta glow of blue and red LED lights, to the 30-foot tall Ferris wheel for plants in Singapore, we've shown you the design possibilities for growing vegetables up instead of out.

But critics ask, what kind of stresses does that put on the plant? And how do you feed this kind of intensive cultivation without spending more than what you get back in the harvest?

They say one of the signs of reaching maturity is your ability to answer your critics. Well, vertical farming may be about at that stage.

Our colleagues over at Harvest Public Media report that in Chicago, entrepreneur John Edel is "working hard to show skeptics that garbage itself can fuel vertical farming." With a grant from the State of Illinois, Edel is "installing a giant anaerobic digester that will convert truckloads of food waste into biogas, burned onsite to keep the lights on," HPM reports.

Edel's baby is The Plant, a 93,500 square-foot former meatpacking facility in Chicago's downtrodden Back of the Yards neighborhood. He's helped transform it into an energy self-sufficient food production operation that will house food non-profits, for-profits and educational enterprises. Here's how the website says it works:
"Once completed, the completely enclosed, odorless anaerobic digester will consume 27 tons of food waste a day (nearly 11,000 tons annually), including all of the waste produced in the facility and by food producing businesses all over Chicago. The digester will capture all of the methane from that waste, and the methane will be burned in a combined heat and power system to produce electricity, plus all the process heat needed for an future onsite craft beer brewery. Excess heat will be used to regulate the building's temperature."

Talk about going off the grid. Among the producers that will benefit from the energy at The Plant are a mushroom farm, an outdoor fruit and vegetable farm and aquaponics system raising fish.

Chicago, it seems, is emerging as a hotbed of urban agriculture innovation in the U.S. As we've reported, it's also the home of one of the country's biggest rooftop farms.

While the digester is still being built, Edel is not shy about his expectations for The Plant. "I think by the end of this year everything will be operational and we'll be well beyond net-zero," he says.

And with a brewery coming, too, we could drink to that.




“Vertical farming” is a promising new way to handle some of the environmental problems that we may face increasingly as a society. “Harvest Public Media” is a branch of National Public Radio which reports on food production issues. From this website, http://www.studymode.com/essays/The-Benefits-Of-Vertical-Farming-92435.html, comes a definition of vertical farming and some facts about it.

“With the growing need for land and the growing population scientists have come up with the idea of vertical farming. The idea of vertical farming is continually growing. According to Wikipedia online, the encyclopedic definition of vertical farming is a form of farming done in urban area high rises that utilize greenhouse growing methods and recycled resources year-round to grow crops. Using these Vertical Farms will allow the populations of the future to rely more on themselves and not depend on others so much. …. One indoor acre is equal to 4-6 outdoor acres or more, that is depending on the crop that is being grown. For instance, to grow a crop of strawberries indoors, one acre inside is equivalent to 30 acres.”

John Edel an entrepreneur is “installing a giant anaerobic digester that will convert truckloads of food waste into biogas, burned onsite to keep the lights on," HPM reports. He runs “The Plant,” is a production unit to generate methane gas which is to be housed in a 93,500 square-foot Chicago building for the production of energy for a “self-sufficient food production operation that will house food non-profits, for-profits and educational enterprises.” Such creative thinking as Edel's is what we will need as the population consumes more and more land for housing, leaving less and less for growing food. Indoor spaces can also be kept warm and wet when the outdoor weather is not conducive to growing plants, especially if we have droughts as a result of Climate Change. This article didn't explore what the costs of these operations would be, and how that would be reflected in the family's food budget. That's a subject for another story.

Danny Thomas Biography
Wikipedia 2014

Danny Thomas (born Amos Muzyad Yakhoob Kairouz; January 6, 1912 – February 6, 1991) was an American nightclub comedian and television and film actor and producer, whose career spanned five decades. Thomas was best known for starring in the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy (also known as The Danny Thomas Show). He was also the founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He is the father of Marlo Thomas, Terre Thomas, and Tony Thomas.[2]

Early life

One of nine children, Danny Thomas was born in Deerfield, Michigan, to Charles Yakhoob Kairouz and his wife Margaret Taouk on January 6, 1912.[3] His parents were Maronite Catholic immigrants from Lebanon.[4] Thomas was raised in Toledo, Ohio, attending St. Francis de Sales Church (Roman Catholic), Woodward High School and finally The University of Toledo, where he was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.[5] Thomas was confirmed in the Catholic Church by the bishop of Toledo, Samuel Stritch. Stritch, a native of Tennessee, was a lifelong spiritual advisor for Thomas, and advised him to locate the St. Jude Hospital in Memphis.[6][7] He married Rose Marie Cassaniti in 1936, a week after his 24th birthday.
In 1932, Thomas began performing on radio in Detroit at WMBC on The Happy Hour Club. Thomas first performed under his Anglicized birth name, "Amos Jacobs Kairouz." After he moved to Chicago in 1940, Thomas did not want his friends and family to know that he went back into working clubs where the salary was better, so he came up with the pseudonym "Danny Thomas" (after two of his brothers).[8]
He can be found living in Ward 6, Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio in the 1920 U. S. Census as Amos Jacobs, the same in the 1930 Census, and in 1940 living in Ward 2, Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan as Amos J. Jacobs, a Radio and Theatrical Artist. Further, the 1930 Census states his parents were born in Syria; while the 1920 Census states that they were born in "Seria," and that their Mother tongue is "Serian." [9] [10]
Pre-television career

Radio
Thomas first reached mass audiences on network radio in the 1940s playing shifty brother-in-law Amos in The Bickersons, which began as sketches on the music-comedy show Drene Time, co-hosted by Don Ameche and Frances Langford. Thomas also portrayed himself as a scatterbrained Lothario on this show. His other network radio work included a stint as "Jerry Dingle" the postman on Fanny Brice's The Baby Snooks Show, and appearances on the popular NBC variety program, The Big Show, hosted by stage legend Tallulah Bankhead.
Films
In films, Thomas starred in The Jazz Singer opposite the popular contemporary vocalist Peggy Lee, a 1952 remake of the 1927 original, and played songwriter Gus Kahn opposite Doris Day in the 1951 film biography I'll See You in My Dreams.
Television career
Make Room For Daddy (The Danny Thomas Show)[edit]
Thomas enjoyed a successful 13-year run (1953–1965) on Make Room For Daddy, later known as The Danny Thomas Show. Jean Hagen and Sherry Jackson were his first family. The Hagen character died in 1956, replaced by Marjorie Lord. On January 1, 1959, Thomas appeared with his Make Room For Daddy child stars, Angela Cartwright and Rusty Hamer, in an episode of NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Danny plays house with television daughter Linda.
Cartwright played the role of Danny Williams's stepdaughter, Linda Williams, between 1957 and 1964, for 170 episodes. The on-and off-screen chemistry of Thomas and Cartwright was largely responsible for the success of the show. The show was produced at Desilu Studios, where Lucille Ball was appearing alongside Desi Arnaz Sr. in I Love Lucy, and it featured several guest stars who went on to star in their own shows, including Andy Griffith (The Andy Griffith Show aka Mayberry RFD), Joey Bishop, and Bill Bixby (My Favorite Martian and others). He also scored a major success at the London Palladium, in the years when many big American stars appeared there.

In the 1970s, the program was revived, but had a short run, under the title Make Room for Granddaddy. (See below.)
Producer
Thomas became a successful television producer (with Sheldon Leonard and Aaron Spelling among his partners) of The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Mod Squad. Thomas also produced three series for Walter Brennan: The Real McCoys, The Tycoon and The Guns of Will Sonnett on ABC during the late 1950s and 1960s. Thomas often appeared in cameos on shows he produced, including his portrayal of the tuxedoed, droll alien Kolak, from the planet Twilo, in the Dick Van Dyke Show science-fiction spoof, "It May Look Like a Walnut."

Thomas, Jack Benny, and Bob Hope in a March 1968 Jack Benny special.
Thomas was responsible for Mary Tyler Moore's first "big break" in acting. In 1961, Carl Reiner cast her in The Dick Van Dyke Show after Thomas personally recommended Moore. He had remembered her as "the girl with three names" whom he had turned down earlier, but rediscovered her after a lengthy search through photos and records.
Return to television
In the early seventies, Thomas reunited most of his second Daddy cast (Marjorie Lord, Rusty Hamer, and Angela Cartwright) for a short-lived update of the show, Make Room for Granddaddy. Premised around Danny and Kathy Williams caring for their grandson by daughter Terry, who was away with her husband on a long business assignment, the show lasted one season. He then starred in an NBC sitcom, The Practice (1976 TV series), for two seasons, and after that I'm a Big Girl Now, which aired on ABC from 1980-81.
The last series in which Thomas was a headlining star was One Big Family, which aired in syndication during the 1986–1987 season. The situation comedy's premise was set around a semi-retired comedian whose grandchildren were orphaned after their parents were killed in a car accident.[11]
Commercials[
Thomas, like many actors prominent in television, endorsed commercial products. In particular, two companies that featured him in their advertising were Maxwell House, whose instant coffee he endorsed (though it had no decaffeinated variant at the time, he later claimed that he had been endorsing a "decaffeinated" instant coffee and that the coffee he actually drank had a high caffeine content), and Philips Norelco's "Dial-A-Brew" version of its short-lived "Better Cup Of Coffee" line of electric drip coffee-makers. One of his other "commercials" was actually a public-service message, with fund-raising goals, for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
As a "starving actor," Thomas had made a vow: If he found success, he would open a shrine dedicated to St Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of hopeless causes. Thomas never forgot his promise to St. Jude, and after becoming a successful actor in the early 1950s, his wife joined him and began traveling the United States to help raise funds to build his dream - St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. [12] He fervently believed that “no child should die in the dawn of life.”[13] With help from Dr. Lemuel Diggs and close friend, Anthony Abraham, an auto magnate in Miami, Florida, Thomas founded the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee in 1962. Since its inception, St. Jude has treated children from all 50 states and around the world, continuing the mission of finding cures and saving children. Dr. Peter C. Doherty of St. Jude's Immunology Department, was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1996 for key discoveries on how the immune system works to kill virus-infected cells.[14]
Personal life
Danny Thomas was a struggling young comic when he met Rose Marie Mantell (born Rose Marie Cassaniti), who had a singing career with her own radio show in Detroit, Michigan. They were married on January 15, 1936 and had three children, Margaret Julia ("Marlo"), Theresa ("Terre") and Charles Anthony ("Tony") Thomas.[15] Thomas's children followed him into entertainment in various capacities: his daughter Marlo is an actress, his son Tony Thomas is a television producer, and his daughter Terre Thomas is an accomplished singer-songwriter. Thomas was also the son-in-law of Marie "Mary" Cassaniti (1896–1972), a drummer and percussionist for "Marie's Merry Music Makers."[16] Thomas was also proud uncle to Rodney Abbas, a beloved local celebrity in Redford Township, Michigan, who died August 13, 2013 at the age of 71.
Thomas was initiated, passed, and raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason Freemasonry at Gothic Lodge #270 F&AM located at Hamilton Square, NJ on March 15, 1984 by special dispensation of the NJ Grand Master. During May 1985, he was made a 32° Mason and also a Noble in Al Malaikah Shrine located at Los Angeles, CA. Thomas also filmed the introduction to the Masonic Service Association's movie, "When the Band Stops Playing".
A devout Maronite Catholic, Thomas was named a Knight Commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre by Pope Paul VI in recognition of his services to the church and the community. He was a member of the Good Shepherd Parish and the Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills, California.[17] In 1983, President Ronald Reagan presented Thomas with a Congressional Gold Medal honoring him for his work with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Thomas was one of the original owners of the Miami Dolphins, along with Joe Robbie, but he sold his ownership share soon after the purchase. He was an avid golfer, claimed a ten golf handicap, and competed with Sam Snead in a charity event.[18] Two PGA Tour tournaments bore his name: the Danny Thomas-Diplomat Classic in south Florida in 1969 and the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic from 1970 to 1984. He was also the first non-Jewish member of the Hillcrest Country Club in Los Angeles.
In 1990, Danny Thomas was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.[19]
Death
Thomas died on February 6, 1991, of heart failure at age 79. He had filmed a commercial for St. Jude Hospital a few days before his death, which aired posthumously. He is interred in a mausoleum on the grounds of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis.[20] Cassaniti, his wife of 55 years, was interred with him on the grounds of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis after her death in July 2000.[21] Thomas was a posthumous recipient of the 2004 Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.
On February 16, 2012, the United States Postal Service issued a first class forever stamp honoring Thomas as an entertainer and humanitarian. The Danny Thomas Forever Stamp features an oil-on-panel painting depicting a smiling, tuxedo-clad Thomas in the foreground and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in the background. Tim O’Brien created the artwork for the Danny Thomas Forever Stamp, which was designed by Greg Breeding. William J. Glicker served as art director. Joining together to dedicate the stamp were Guy Cottrell, chief postal inspector and dedicating official; Thomas' son and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital board member, Tony; Richard Shadyac Jr., chief executive officer, ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; Dr. William E. Evans, director and chief executive officer, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; and Stephen Kearney, manager, Stamp Services, U.S. Postal Service.[22]


External links

Biography portal


Wikimedia Commons has media related to Danny Thomas.
Danny Thomas at the Internet Movie Database
Biography at the Museum Broadcast Communications
"Danny Thomas Story" at St. Jude
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Danny Thomas receives the Congressional Gold Medal from President Ronald Reagan

FAITH – A UNITARIAN PERSPECTIVE




"Faith is a commitment to live as if certain things are true, and thereby help to make them so. Faith is a commitment to live as if life is a wondrous mystery, as if life is good, as if love is divine, as if we are responsible for the well-being of those around us.... Faith is a leap of the moral imagination that connects the world as it is to the world as it might become." (GALEN GUENGRICH)




Galen Guengerich is Senior Minister of All Souls Unitarian Church, an historic congregation located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. He is the tenth person to hold this position in the congregation’s 194-year history. His last name is pronounced GING (rhymes with “sing”) -rich.

He was educated at Franklin and Marshall College (BA, 1982), Princeton Theological Seminary (MDiv, 1985) and the University of Chicago (PhD, 2004). His doctoral dissertation is titled Comprehensive Commitments and the Public World: Tillich, Rawls and Whitehead on the Nature of Justice.

He is author of God Revised: How Religion Must Evolve in a Scientific Age (Palgrave Macmillan) and writes a regular column on “The Search for Meaning” for psychologytoday.com.  His sermon at All Souls on Sept. 16, 2001—the Sunday after 9/11—was selected for inclusion in Representative American Speeches 2001-2002. Titled “The Shaking of the Foundations,” the sermon appears along with speeches by Governor George Pataki, President George Bush and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as one of seven “Responses to September 11th.”

He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, where he focuses on how traditional religious beliefs and practices, both in the US and abroad, usually reinforce patriarchy to the detriment of women and democracy. In April, 2013, he visited Afghanistan with a delegation of Council members and fellows, meeting with top military, diplomatic, and civilian leaders in Kabul, as well as in Kandahar and Helmand Provinces. In February, 2013 he spoke in Belfast, Northern Ireland, a visit hosted by Christopher Hudson, MBE, who helped negotiate the Good Friday Agreement. In January 2012, he was part of a 15-member delegation of senior clergy from New York City to visit Israel and the West Bank, the first such delegation to meet with a broad spectrum of religious and political leaders, including Shimon Peres, President of Israel, and Salem Fayyad, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority.

A Note To President Obama
April 29, 2014

Quotation from page 441 of Monument To Murder
By Margaret Truman
2011



“There are times when a man has to act to preserve what's precious to him, his family, his wealth, and his nation. The money you contribute each year to our group says to me that you understand what's at stake. I sure as hell don't intend to see my daughter injured by what's happened, and I also don't intend to see Fletcher Jamison's presidency torpedoed. We now have a man in the White house who shares our beliefs, who recognizes that this is a white Christian nation built upon the backs of European immigrants, who stands for what we stand for, small government, adherence to time-honored traditions of marriage and honor, fiscal responsibility, and an end to social welfare programs.” The man speaking this rant has just turned a private detective's location over to a secretive and very small department in the Federal government which has been set up specifically to eliminate troublemakers permanently. They are reached through the CIA. The book also states that this department killed John and Robert Kennedy. There were many rumors at the time that the CIA was the source of the assassinations. It was a very dark time.

I'm sure this book is purely fiction, but the way the CIA operates sometimes, the Iran-Contra affair, for instance, makes this story a little too plausible. This is the kind of thing I fear when I see things like the collection of the telephone information on large numbers of American citizens, “just in case” it might be needed later. We desperately need to keep the rule of law firmly in place, even when “national security” is involved. The CIA or the NSA or whoever's doing it each time, can take the time and energy required to get the permission of a judge before taking action.

I hate to see Snowden basically imprisoned in Russia because he exposed the NSA's activity. Please keep this Democratic administration clean and operating within the law. That's the kind of America I am proud of. Of course, I know that being President is a complicated and difficult thing, and I think for the most part you have done well, but that incident did bother me a great deal. Thanks for reading this. I am behind you and am proud that I voted for you.

Sincerely,
Lucy Warner