This post is in no way a slight to that not-flat-enough state of Iowa but I figured with plenty of time left it would be ok to take a break so that you could have some fun facts to know and tell when you go to your Fourth of July barbecue. As for my Canadian readers...you are not missing much!
Now as opposed to the 'famous people' lists attached to the Iowa cities I have so far highlighted...this list is chock full of people we all know. To my knowledge not one of them had or has PD.
Good for them.
Perhaps we could take a poll as to who is the favorite among us but I will tell you that there is only one name here that strikes fear in my heart and makes me tremble...
Rube Goldberg
Do you think he knew that one day every parent of a fourth grader in this country would have to waste a week of their precious life helping their child hammer, saw, glue, test and retest their friggin' rube goldberg project. Wait! Did I say 'helping'? I think I should have said "doing" because what 9-10 yr old kid can make one of those things really work. It takes precision and a bit of OCD. UGH! He may be dead but it is still hard to forgive him. Honk if you agree.
So...THE LIST.
1776 - You could say the Declaration of Independence was "born"on this day.
1804 - Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlett Letter was born on the Fourth of July
1826 - Songwriter Stephen Foster
1847 - James Bailey, circus founder
1872 - Calvin Coolidge, 30th president of the United States
1883 - Rube Goldberg , a newspaper cartoonist
1885 - Louis B. Mayer, co-founder of MGM
1902 - actor/politician George Murphy in 1902
1910 - The "old lady" in Titanic, Gloria Stuart
1913 - Barbara Weeks, actress
1918- Ann Landers and Abigain Van Buren, twin sisters, and both advice columnists
1920 - The infamous Leona Helmsley
1924- actress Eva Marie Saint in 1924
1927 - Neil Simon, playwright
1928 - Actress Gina Lollobrigida
1929 - Al Davis, Oakland Raiders owner
1930 - George Steinbrenner, New York Yankees owner
1931 - Irish actor Stephen Boyd (died in 1977)
1940 - Actress Karolyn Grimes played the endlessly cute Zuzu in the classic holiday film, It's A Wonderful Life
1943 -The TV reporter everyone loved to hate for a while, Geraldo Rivera
1951 - Ralph Johnson, the ever talented percussionist of the band Earth, Wind and Fire. ***
1955 - Singer John Waite
1958 - Kirk Pengilly, guitarist for the rockin' band INXS
1962 - Tennis player (retired) Pam Shriver
1963 - Matt Malley, bassist for the band Counting Crows.
1971 - Andrew Creeggan of the band, The Barenaked Ladies
*** Maurice White, the founder of EW&F was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in his late 40's.
Wishing everyone a great day off...I am of course on-call but that is life...I can even kind of remember that I actually signed up for this!
In tribute to Maurice White, I will close with an old EW&F chart....
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