Martha Jane Canary (or Cannary), better known as Calamity Jane, was an American frontierswoman and professional scout, known for her claim of being an acquaintance of “Wild Bill” Hickok, and fighting against Native Americans. Late in her life, she appeared in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. She is said to have always exhibited kindness and compassion to others, especially to the sick and needy. This facet of her character, contrasted with her daredevil ways, helped make her a noted frontier figure. Calamity Jane was also known for her habit of wearing men’s attire. She was born on May 1, 1852 and died on August 1, 1903.
Billy the Kid, also known as William H. Bonney, was born William Henry McCarty Jr. (November 23, 1859 – July 14, 1881). He was an American frontier gunfighter, thief and murderer who participated in New Mexico’s Lincoln County War. Bonney is known to have killed eight men. After murdering a blacksmith during an altercation in 1877, Bonney became a wanted man in Arizona Territory and joined a group of cattle rustlers in New Mexico. He took part in the Lincoln County War and joined the Regulators, making him a well-known outlaw in the region. After one of many prison escapes, Bonney was ultimately shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner in 1881. Over the next several decades, legends grew that Bonney had not died that night, and a number of men claimed to be him.
Grace Hopper was an American computer scientist and United States Navy Rear Admiral. She was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer in 1944. In the 1950s, Hopper invented the first compiler for a computer programming language and helped popularize the idea of machine-independent programming languages—which led to the development of COBOL, one of the first high-level programming languages. She is credited with popularizing the term “debugging” for fixing computer glitches (in one instance, removing a moth from a computer). Owing to her accomplishments and her naval rank, Hopper is sometimes referred to as “Amazing Grace.” She was born on December 9, 1906 and died on January 1, 1992.
Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, political commentator, social justice activist and anarcho-syndicalist advocate. Sometimes described as the “father of modern linguistics,” Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy. He has spent most of his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and is the author of more than 100 books. In 1967, Chomsky entered public consciousness through his vocal opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and came to be associated with the New Left. He was arrested multiple times for his anti-war activism. Following his retirement from active teaching, he has continued his vocal public activism, including opposition to the Iraq War and support for the Occupy movement. Chomsky remains a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy, neoliberal capitalism and mainstream news media. He was born December 7, 1928.
Popeye the Sailor Man is a cartoon fictional character, created by E. C. Segar, who has appeared in comic strips and theatrical and television animated cartoons. He first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre in 1929; Popeye became the strip’s title in later years. In 1933, Fleischer Studios adapted the Thimble Theatre characters into a series of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. These cartoons proved to be among the most popular of the 1930s, and the Fleischers—and later Paramount’s own Famous Studios—continued production through 1957.
Faheem Najm, better known by his stage name T-Pain, is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer and actor. His discography includes Rappa Ternt Sanga (2005), Epiphany (2007) and Thr33 Ringz (2008). T-Pain has earned two Grammy Awards alongside artists Kanye West and Jamie Foxx. T-Pain is the founder of the record label Nappy Boy Entertainment, established in 2005. He is known for using and popularizing the Auto-Tune pitch shift effect. From 2006 to 2010, T-Pain was featured on more than 50 chart-topping singles, including Flo Rida’s “Low” and The Lonely Island’s “I’m on a Boat.” T-Pain was born on September 30, 1985.
Doug Martsch is an American singer and musician. He is best known for his distinctive vocals and guitar-playing style in the band Built to Spill. Martsch’s first band was Farm Days in the early 1980s. His second band was Treepeople, with whom he released three albums and two EPs. He has been the lead singer and guitarist of Built to Spill since 1992. Built to Spill has released released eight full-length albums, including this year’s Untethered Moon (2015). Martsch was born in Twin Falls, Idaho in September 1969.
Lufkin is a large stuffed ape I was given as a baby in 1979. A gift from my uncle, he’s one of my most beloved childhood toys. Lufkin’s body type strongly suggests that he is a gorilla, despite his chimpanzee-like ears. He was handmade by a South Dakota artist and sold at a craft fair in Aberdeen, SD. Lufkin came with an adult-size red cap, which he wore for my entire childhood. His name comes from this red Lufkin cap, which had an embroidered Lufkin measuring tools patch on the white polyester front, with red mesh and a snapback adjustable strap in back. We have always pronounced the gorilla’s name “Loofkin,” I suppose because my parents didn’t know much about the measuring tools company. The gorilla is now one of my two-year-old daughter Ramona’s favorite toys/pillows, though we’re not sure where his red trucker hat is these days.
Teren Delvon Jones, better known as Del the Funky Homosapien, is an American underground hip-hop artist from Oakland, California. In 1991, with the help of his cousin Ice Cube, Del released his first solo album, I Wish My Brother George Was Here, at the age of 18. In 2000, Del released his fourth solo album, Both Sides of the Brain, as well as the rap space-opera Deltron 3030, which was a collaborative work with artists Dan the Automator and Kid Koala. Del also collaborated with virtual trip-hop group Gorillaz on two songs on their debut album, including the hit “Clint Eastwood.” Since 2008, Del has released seven albums, including last year’s free LP Iller Than Most (2014). He was born on August 12, 1972.
Dook LaRue is a character in The Rock-afire Explosion, an animatronic robot band. A dog who aspired to space travel, his costume is an astronaut suit. His character, when set up properly, had the ability to play a four-piece drum kit in time with the music. A bit of a dimwit, Dook would often lose focus during shows and miss his cues. The Rock-afire Explosion played shows in Showbiz Pizza Place from the restaurant chain’s founding in 1980 until the early 1990s, when the Showbiz brand was unified with Chuck E. Cheese’s and Chuck E. Cheese characters steadily replaced the band. The Rock-afire Explosion show was created and manufactured by noted inventor Aaron Fechter, through his company Creative Engineering, Inc. (also known for Whac-A-Mole) in Orlando, Florida; in addition to overseeing the production of the animatronics, Fechter also provided the voices for several characters.
Chuck E. Cheese is the mascot of Chuck E. Cheese’s, a chain of American family entertainment center restaurants. The brand derives its name from its main animatronic character Chuck E. Cheese, a comedic mouse who sings and interacts with guests. The establishment serves pizza and other menu items, complemented by arcade games, amusement rides and family-friendly animatronic displays. In 1977, Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre in San Jose, California, was the first location to open. The concept was authored by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, credited with bringing video games such as Pong to the mainstream. Pizza Time Theatre was the first family restaurant to integrate food, animated entertainment and an indoor arcade. The chain merged with competitor Showbiz Pizza Place in 1984. In the early 1990s, the company unified the two brands renaming every location to Chuck E. Cheese’s.
Jacques-Yves Cousteau was a French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the Aqua-Lung, pioneered marine conservation and was a member of the French Academy. Cousteau described his underwater world research in series of books, perhaps most successful being his first book, The Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure, published in 1953. He also directed films, most notably the documentary adaptation of the book, The Silent World, which won a Palme d’or at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. Cousteau was born on June 11, 1910 and died on June 25, 1997.
Maria Sharapova is a Russian professional tennis player. She is currently ranked No. 2 on the WTA Tour. A U.S. resident since 1994, Sharapova has competed on the WTA tour since 2001. She has been ranked world No. 1 in singles by the WTA on five separate occasions. She became the world No. 1 for the first time in 2005 and last held the ranking in 2012. Sharapova’s 34 singles titles and five Grand Slam titles—two at the French Open and one each at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open—rank third among active players, behind Serena Williams and Venus Williams. Sharapova is the reigning champion in singles at the French Open. She won a silver medal for Russia at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Sharapova was born on April 19, 1987.
My wife, daughter and I returned to Oregon late last night after visiting family in Pennsylvania. Today we will be attending Linework NW, a free illustration and comics festival in Portland. It starts at noon at the Norse Hall, which is in Northeast Portland near Voodoo Doughnut Too. Last night we stayed at the Nordic Motel (fairly close to the airport), so I guess between Norse and Nordic we’re accidentally pretending to be visiting Scandinavia today?
Finn Mertens (or Finn the Human) is the main protagonist of Adventure Time, an American animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network. The series follows the adventures of Finn (voiced by Jeremy Shada), a human boy, and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake (voiced by John DiMaggio), a dog with magical powers to change shape and grow and shrink at will. Finn and Jake live in the post-apocalyptic Land of Ooo.
Note:Adventure Time launched as a Cartoon Network series on April 5, 2010. It’s been five years of Ooo!
Elton John (born Reginald Dwight) is an English singer, songwriter, composer, pianist and record producer. He has worked with lyricist Bernie Taupin as his songwriter partner since 1967; they have collaborated on more than 30 albums to date. In his five-decade career Elton John has sold more than 300 million records, making him one of the bestselling music artists in the world. He released seven consecutive No. 1 U.S. albums and 58 Billboard Top 40 singles. For 31 consecutive years (1970-2000) John had at least one song in the Billboard Hot 100. He has been heavily involved in the fight against AIDS since the late 1980s. John champions LGBT social movements worldwide and same-sex marriage. John was born on March 25, 1947.
Note: This is NCAA Division I mascot #1 of 5 in celebration of the first week of the 2015 NCAA Tournament. The No. 11-seeded Dayton Flyers play the Boise State Broncos tomorrow, in Dayton, in one of the “First Four” play-in games. Can Dayton do it again?
Jaime Meline, better known by his stage name El-P (originally El Producto), is an American hip-hop recording artist, record producer, rapper and entrepreneur from Brooklyn. Originally a member of Company Flow, El-P has been a major driving force in alternative hip-hop for more than two decades. He is the co-founder, owner and CEO of the Definitive Jux record label. His solo albums include Fantastic Damage (2002) and I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead (2007). El-P is also a member of The Weathermen and art collective Cardboard City (along with Cage, Shia LaBoeuf, Aesop Rock, Yak Ballz and others). In 2013, he formed the hip-hop duo Run the Jewels, with frequent collaborator Killer Mike, and has released two RTJ albums. El-P was born on March 2, 1975.
My favorite song from Run the Jewels 2 (2014) is the excellent final track, “Angel Duster.” Also, five years ago, I uploaded a 12-song Definitive Jux 2010 playlist to 8tracks. It’s a 2001-2009 retrospective of some favorite Def Jux tracks in response to El-P’s announcement that the label was going on hiatus and he was stepping down as artistic director. Feel free to listen to the playlist in honor of El-P’s 40th birthday. Or in honor of my 36th birthday, which is tomorrow.
Yoko Ono is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer and peace activist. She is the widow and second wife of John Lennon and is also known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking. Ono grew up in Tokyo, and studied at Gakushuin University while her family moved to the U.S. to escape the war. They reunited in 1953, and she became involved in New York City’s downtown artists scene, including the Fluxus group. Ono first met Lennon in 1966 at her own art exhibition in London, and they became a couple in 1968. She achieved commercial and critical acclaim in 1980 with the chart-topping album Double Fantasy, released with Lennon three weeks before his death. Since 2003, 11 of her songs, mostly remixes of her older work, have hit No. 1 on the U.S. dance chart. Ono was born on February 18, 1933.
Pinocchio is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children’s novel The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883), by the Italian writer Carlo Collodi. Carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a small Italian village, Pinocchio was created as a wooden puppet, but dreamed of becoming a real boy. He has also been used as a character who is prone to telling lies and fabricating stories. Pinocchio has been called an icon of modern culture, and is one of the most reimagined characters in the pantheon of children’s literature. A well-known adaptation is the Walt Disney film Pinocchio (1940).
Lufkin the Gorilla – No. 912
Lufkin is a large stuffed ape I was given as a baby in 1979. A gift from my uncle, he’s one of my most beloved childhood toys. Lufkin’s body type strongly suggests that he is a gorilla, despite his chimpanzee-like ears. He was handmade by a South Dakota artist and sold at a craft fair in Aberdeen, SD. Lufkin came with an adult-size red cap, which he wore for my entire childhood. His name comes from this red Lufkin cap, which had an embroidered Lufkin measuring tools patch on the white polyester front, with red mesh and a snapback adjustable strap in back. We have always pronounced the gorilla’s name “Loofkin,” I suppose because my parents didn’t know much about the measuring tools company. The gorilla is now one of my two-year-old daughter Ramona’s favorite toys/pillows, though we’re not sure where his red trucker hat is these days.