Here's the book cover you heard me laughing about this morning as we talked with Ron Newton about the top productivity killers at work.  I just love this title and cover!  Click the pic to get to Ron's website...

So, a new book claims that Vice President Lyndon Johnson is responsible for the assination of President John Kennedy. 

I got news for ya...that was the rumor when it first happened.  In fact, there was even a play about it titled Macbird.  It was a parody of Shakespeare's Macbeth.  "Macbird is a 1967 satire that superimposed the transferal of power following the Kennedy assination onto the plot of Shakespeare's Macbeth."

I didn't get to see the play, but I remember seeing the paperback.  Macbird caused quite a stir, implying that Lyndon Johnson had a hand in the assination of President Kennedy.  After all, it did happen in Texas, Johnson's home state.  The author of Macbird is Barbara Garson, who says she was not seriously accusing Johnson of complicity in the Kennedy assination, but that's how people took it.  A lot of theaters were pressured not to put it on, but The Village Gate in New York did.  Guess what Savannahian starred in the play?  Stacy Keach

Also in the class: Rue McClanahan, William Devane, Clevon Little.

Click the pic or click HERE to read about the new book.

The situation of the 3 kidnapped women in Ohio is still unfathomable to me.  So far, we've seen and heard a lot about Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus.  Well, 19 Action News in Cleveland finally has a picture of the third woman, Michelle Knight.  Michelle went missing when she was 20 and her disappearance didn't gain near the publicity as Amanda and Gina's disappearances.  Here is Michelle's picture.  19 Action News asks you to share it and show support for Michelle.

(Photo courtesy of Michelle Knight's family and Action 19 News)

<:hgroup>

Jello-colored horses and political allegories aside, here are some incredible facts about one of the most epic films of all time. <:time datetime="2013-04-25T19:49:53Z">posted on April 25, 2013 at 3:49pm EDT

Jessica Misener BuzzFeed Staff

 

 

1. This "fire" was actually apple juice spewing out of Dorothy's shoes; the film was sped up to make it look like fire.

Source: mfennwrites.wordpress.com

2. The Cowardly Lion's facial makeup included pieces of a brown paper bag.

Source: sandyleverone.com

 

3.  Judy Garland couldn't stop giggling while filming the scene in which Dorothy slaps the Cowardly Lion. The director, Victor Fleming, took her aside and slapped her. She returned to the set and filmed the scene in one take.

Garland can still be seen laughing in between the lines "Well, of course not" and "My, what a fuss you're making." (GIFed above.)

4.  The scarecrow face prosthetics that Ray Bolger wore left a pattern of lines on his face that took more than a year to vanish.

Source: warmsouthernbreeze.wordpress.com

5.  Most of the Wicked Witch's scenes had to be edited or cut all together after they were deemed too frightening for children.

6. The "oil" that was used to lubricate the Tin Man was chocolate syrup. (Real oil didn't photograph well.)

Source: goodmorninggratitude.com

 

Source: tammy-lavenderlace.blogspot.com

7. The Cowardly Lion was originally going to be played by Jackie the MGM Lion, with lines dubbed in by an actor, until Bert Lahr came up for the part.

Source: youtube.com

 

Source: smartfellowspress.com

8. Whoa: Liza Minnelli, daughter of Judy Garland, was married to Jack Haley Jr., the son of Jack Haley, who played the Tin Man.

Source: jennionenote.tumblr.com

9. You can clearly see the trap door open in the scene where the Wicked Witch departs Munchkinland.

Source: youtube.com

10. The Scarecrow was unable to say the correct Pythagorean Theorem (right after he got his brains), so after multiple attempts, the director simply selected the best take and used it.

11. Dorothy's white dress was actually pink, which was easier to shoot in Technicolor.

12. When Dorothy asks the Wizard who he is, she has Toto in her arms, and you can see her taking the string from around his neck where the curtain was attached.

Source: youtube.com

 

Source: youtube.com

14. Margaret Hamilton's makeup was toxic and could not be ingested, so she lived almost entirely on a liquid diet during filming.

(All facts from here, here and here.)

Source: findagrave.com

All five living presidents were on hand yesterday (April 25th) on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas for the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. President Obama was among those who spoke, praising his predecessor as a, quote, "good man" who should be commended for his determination to keep the nation safe after 9/11 and his efforts in leading an immigration reform effort. He also spoke about finding a letter in his desk from Bush when he arrived in the Oval Office, stating, "He knew I would come to learn what he had learned. Being president above all is a humbling job. There are moments when you make mistakes. There are times when you wish you could turn back the clock. We love this country and we do our best." Former Presidents Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush -- Bush's father -- all spoke, as did Bush himself. Bush became emotional several times during his remarks, as he thanked those who'd shown up for the opening and praised ex-staffers. He said of serving, "In democracy, the purpose of public office is not to fulfill personal ambition. Elected officials must serve a cause greater than themselves. The political winds blow left and right, polls rise and fall, supporters come and go. But in the end, leaders are defined by the convictions they held." A highlight of the day were the remarks by Clinton, who drew laughter several times, including when he joked about Bush's new-found love of painting and recently revealed works he did of himself in the shower and bathtub:

Click here for details about the US Flag Code:  http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagcode.htm

(From Forbes.com)

The Cinnamon Challenge is this millennium’s version of your mother admonishing you with, “If someone tells you to jump off a cliff, would you?,” for taking on a dare from your friends.

The challenge — attempting to swallow a tablespoon of cinnamon powder in 60 seconds without liquids — isn’t just painful. According to a paper published yesterday in the journal Pediatrics, cinnamon misuse was cited in almost 200 calls to U.S. poison control centers during the first half of 2012 with 30 of these cases requiring medical attention.

The corresponding author, Dr. Steven E. Lipshultz of the University of Miami School of Medicine, suggests that the combination of cinnamon’s caustic chemical and undigestible cellulose matrix makes the practice particularly damaging to the lungs.

The lungs?

Yes, the ingestion of the powder invariably stimulates the gag reflex followed by inhalation of the powder that’s stuck inside the mouth and throat. The pain then causes rapid exhalation characterized by “dragon breath” upon blowing the powder out. Good times.

The complete PDF of this Pediatrics report is currently available online without a subscription.

The idea of the challenge has circulated for years but has intensified with the popularity of YouTube, especially in the last three years. The oldest YouTube video documenting such a challenge was uploaded on April 2, 2006. Pre-YouTube, the Cinnamon Challenge was first documented on the web by Michael Buffington as it was played by Erik Goodlad on December 21, 2001, according to KnowYourMeme.com. The CC2K1 was then reported by Jason Kottke on December 22, 2001. Buffington’s original URL is no longer active but is archived at his current site, collusioni.st.

So if it’s not already apparent, why shouldn’t you take the Cinnamon Challenge?

1.  ”Natural ” is not always safe.  Just because cinnamon is a naturally-occurring spice — it’s harvested from the dried bark of several Cinnamomum tree species — doesn’t mean it can’t be harmful. Cinnamon is deemed safe for consumption as a food additive under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s classification of Generally Recognized As Safe, or GRAS, list. But the FDA is silent on spice inhalation.

2. Cinnamaldehyde rhymes with formaldehyde. The chemical that gives cinnamon its characteristic smell and zing is known as cinnamic aldehyde, or cinnamaldehyde. This means there’s a part of the chemical that acts like formaldehyde that binds and “fixes” human tissue. Do you remember smelling formaldehyde in your high school biology class when dissecting some dead animal? That’s what cinnamaldehyde can do in high concentrations.

3. Cinnamon is ground tree bark. So not only are you inhaling a tissue fixative, you’re also inhaling powdered bark. That’s why it’s difficult to spit out or, more importantly, get out of your lungs. The cellulose matrix of tree bark acts like a sustained release medicine, but in this case releasing a painful and damaging chemical. The body cannot metabolize cellulose. That’s probably okay for the stuff that’s swallowed. It’ll only burn tomorrow morning at potty time. But the stuff in the lungs is hard to expire. In my grandfather’s day, inhaling coal dust led to a condition called black lung. In my father’s day, people would get a lung cancer called mesothelioma from inhaling asbestos fibers. In 1984, a paper in the British Journal of Industrial Medicine detailed the lung disease and hair and weight loss in Sri Lankan spice workers who process cinnamon quills.

4. Only doing it once can trigger an asthma attack. Doing it once won’t cause any of these chronic illnesses — probably. This 1995 paper in the Indian Journal of Medical Research shows that rats given a single intratracheal dose of cinnamon powder can develop severe lung damage a month later. In humans, inhaling cinnamon powder even once could at least cause an asthma attack, or uncontrollable spasms and narrowing of the bronchioles. While I haven’t yet seen any reports of deaths associated with the Cinnamon Challenge, I would never attempt doing this because I have a history of asthma and try to steer away from anything that might trigger a fatal asthma attack. In fact, I really don’t care for non-fatal asthma attacks. You shouldn’t either.

5.  Just because you saw it on YouTube, does that mean you should do it?

That’s what my generation is currently telling their kids.

Friends don’t let friends do the Cinnamon Challenge.

Physics professor Rhett Allain has more on the science of the Cinnamon Challenge at Wired.