Yes, She Sure Enough Had Her Some Bananas

"A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." Douglas Adams

So, a fine quote for the day, giving the ongoing, oily outrage under the sea. Rather than dwell upon the contentious and contaminating nature of our species I'll turn my mind to a few performers who share a birthday today, who served life with what they did best. One of 'em, in fact, is still at it. Actor and painter Tony Curtis has completed 85 years of life. To that I say jesusmary&joseph - how on earth can it be that he's gotten that danged old?

Had she not passed on back in 1991, Colleen Dewhurst, (who did ever so much more than portray Marilla in the PBS A. of G. Gables, but that role was my favorite), would have beem 86 today. A fine old Shakespearean actor, Maurice Evans, was born on this day in 1901, but to my mind the Queen of the Day was the lady who was born over in St. Louis, MO, on the 3rd of June, 1906. By 1925, she'd put her mean country and hard-scrabble childhood far behind. She'd taken Paris by storm, as the saying goes, by dancing, prancing & entrancing in very little but a bit of jewelry and a bunch o' bananas. Oh bébé, ooh la la! Oh to have been there and seen Miss Josephine! To press agents and to her multitudinous admirers, Josephine Baker would be known as The Bronze Venus or The Black Pearl. To her rapturous fans in her adopted country of France she was La Baker. The glorious, outrageous, big-hearted, large-living entertainer would do many things in her life, not the least of which was her service in the French Underground Resistance with others trying to subvert the Nazi occupation, and in her home country's civil rights movement. I could go on, but I've me own work to accomplish. Miss Josephine's work is done. Happy Birthday, Bon Anniversaire to her, off in the Blue Beyond, la Au-dela Bleu To see La Baker in her glory, do visit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmw5eGh888Y