Queen Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until her death in 1901. She also used the title of Empress of India. Her nine children (and 26 of her 34 grandchildren who survived childhood) married into royal and noble families across the continent, earning her the nickname “the grandmother of Europe.” She was born on this day in 1819.
Indira Gandhi was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms (1966-77) and a fourth term (1980-84). Gandhi was the second female head of government in the world. She was the first woman to become prime minister in India. She was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984 in retaliation for ordering Operation Blue Star.
Note: “I am here today, I may not be here tomorrow. I shall continue to serve till my last breath, and when I die every drop of my blood will strengthen India and keep a united India alive.” – Indira Gandhi’s last speech
Tim Duncan is an NBA player with the San Antonio Spurs, since 1997. He plays the power forward/center position and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. He led the Spurs to NBA championship runs in 1999, 2003, 2005 and 2007.
Note: In the ongoing 2012 NBA playoffs, the Spurs have advanced to the Western Conference finals. Duncan and his team are on an 18-game winning streak and have won 29 of their last 31 games. This is 8-bit character #10 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
Hakeem the Dream was an NBA player with the Houston Rockets and Toronto Raptors, from 1984-2002. Born in Nigeria, he became a naturalized American citizen in 1993. Olajuwon played the center position and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. During Michael Jordan’s retirement, he led the Rockets to back-to-back NBA championships in 1994 and 1995.
Note: This is 8-bit character #9 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
Trent Reznor is an American singer-songwriter, composer and record producer. Reznor has led the industrial rock project Nine Inch Nails as vocalist and multi-instrumentalist since 1988. In 2010, he and his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, formed the post-industrial band How to Destroy Angels alongside fellow composer Atticus Ross, with whom Reznor has scored two films. Reznor was on born on this day in 1965.
Admiral Ackbar is a character in the Star Wars franchise. As the Mon Calamari rebel leader, he played a supporting role in the 1983 film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Admiral Ackbar’s “It’s a trap!” line is one of the most popular lines from the Star Wars films and is a popular Internet meme.
This week I am attending WebVisions 2012 in Portland, Oregon.
Lando Calrissian is a character in the Star Wars franchise. He first appeared in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) as an administrator of Cloud City who later joins the Rebel Alliance. He helps Han Solo destroy Jabba’s barge and then takes the pilot chair in the Millennium Falcon to lead the attack on the second Death Star.
David Byrne is a musician and artist, best known as a founding member and principal songwriter of the American new wave band Talking Heads, which was active between 1975 and 1991. Since then, Byrne has released solo recordings and worked with various media including film and photography. He was born on this day in 1952.
Note: The inspiration for this 8-bit character is Stop Making Sense, a 1984 concert movie featuring Talking Heads live on stage. The movie is notable for Byrne’s “big suit,” an absurdly oversized business suit he dons late in the concert for the song “Girlfriend is Better.”
Eddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered an icon of alternative rock and Seattle grunge. Vedder was originally invited to Seattle in 1990 by former Mother Love Bone members to audition for the Temple of the Dog tribute project and their new band Mookie Blaylock (renamed Pearl Jam in 1991).
Katsushika Hokusai was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. Born in Edo (now Tokyo), he is best known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, which includes the internationally recognized print The Great Wave off Kanagawa, created during the 1820s. Hokusai died on this day in 1849.
Oscar is a stray orange and white dog who lives in the fortress of Sacsayhuamán, a walled complex on the northern outskirts of the city of Cusco, Peru. Sacsayhuamán is the former capital of the Inca Empire. The complex is made of large polished dry-stone walls, each boulder carefully cut to fit together tightly without mortar.
When we visited Sacsayhuamán in December 2011, this dog followed/led Heidi and me around for hours, ignoring all other tourists (and even following us dangerously close to a herd of alpacas, which chased him). I named Oscar after our charming room—which was named after an orphan boy—at the Niños Hotel in Cusco, which supports disadvantaged children. I like to think of Oscar as my canine spirit guide and the best dog in the world.
Trugernanner, often referred to as Truganini, is widely considered the last “full blood” Palawa (Aboriginal Tasmanian). Between 1803 and 1876, the black aborigines of the Australian island of Tasmania were completely destroyed by invading European settlers. The Black War, a period of conflict between British colonists and Aboriginal Tasmanians, is one of the earliest recorded modern genocides. All indigenous Tasmanian languages have been lost. Truganini died on this day in 1876.
In March 2012, our 10″ garden gnome disappeared from the front yard. On the morning of Friday, May 4, he mysteriously reappeared on the front porch with a Mexican flag in his hand, a letter and a photo album of his travels. We learned that our gnome’s name is Dingledodger VonFefferhedge and he is 900 years old. He had been adventuring in Redding, California and Ensenada, Mexico to escape Oregon’s cold, boring winter. His journey included visits with Brunhilde the forest witch and two mariachi statues. (The bottom of Dingledodger’s plastic shoes—which reads “© 1994 Art Line Inc. ® Model No. 4030″—marks the date of his enslavement in China, not his birth.)
P.S. Having a traveling gnome prank played on us was great fun. The pranksters went all out, even giving Dingledodger his own Facebook and Google+ pages. According to Facebook, his birthday is October 12. Everyone needs more weird, random acts of kindness like this.
Mr. Clutch is a former NBA player with the Los Angeles Lakers from 1960-1974. He played the guard position and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. West’s silhouette serves as the current NBA logo.
Note: This is 8-bit character #8 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
The Big O is a former NBA player with the Cincinnati Royals and Milwaukee Bucks, from 1960-1974. He played the shooting guard/point guard position and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. He is the only player in NBA history to average a triple-double for a season.
Note: This is 8-bit character #7 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
Wilt Chamberlain is a former NBA player with the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers. He played the center position from 1959-1973 and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. Chamberlain is the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game or average more than 40 and 50 points in a season.
Note: This is 8-bit character #6 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Lew Alcindor) is a former NBA player with the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers, from 1969-1989. Known for his legendary skyhook, he played the center position and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points.
Note: This is 8-bit character #5 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
Bill Russell is a former NBA player with the Boston Celtics from 1956-1969. He played the center position and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. Russell was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that won 11 NBA Championships during his 13-year career.
Note: This is 8-bit character #4 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
Monchhichi is a line of Japanese stuffed toy monkeys that Mattel introduced to the U.S. in the late 1970s. The Hanna-Barbera cartoon series Monchhichis debuted in 1983. Monchhichis are monkey-like creatures who live in the forest land of Monchia at the tops of very tall trees, high above the clouds. As a child, one of my favorite stuffed animals was a Monchhichi. I believe the character was the thumb-sucking Thumkii.
After additional, very important research, I have identified both of my beloved thumb-sucking monkey dolls from childhood. One was a tan, 11″ monkey from Atlanta Novelty, a division of Gerber Products. And the other was the banana-holding Thumkey, a 7″ Russ Berrie knockoff of the Monchhichi line. Both had plush bodies with plastic faces and hands.
Hồ Chí Minh – No. 421
Hồ Chí Minh was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister (1945-1955) and president (1945-1969) of the communist-governed Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). He was a key figure in the People’s Army of Vietnam and the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. He was born on this day in 1890.
“Ho Chi Minh” is a phrase my dad and his brothers use as an exclamation of fatigue or surprise (or after a particularly violent sneeze). The phrase “L.A.” (which is derived from “Lord Almighty,” I believe) has a similar connotation in their vernacular.