Old Age - How to navigate it

No Country for Old Age - Hedgehog Review

Read the article.   You'll see that there is guarantee for remaining healthy, mentally strong, and financially secure in old age.   Counting on family may not work especially if you have no kids and even if you have them it's not guaranteed.

Stay active if you can.

Learn to live on less.

Find things to do before you retire so that you won't be stuck in front of a TV as the one thing to describe your last years.

25 Ideas to Change Your Life

Changing your life 

This has some interesting tips. 

Focus and Selective Focus - 20 slot Rule

Here is a great article on Warren Buffet's 20 slot rule for investments that you might apply to your life.

20 slot rule

D-Factor in Personality - Your Dark Side

How the dark side of your personality is measured.  

Scientific American- the dark core of personality

Do a self-assessment and you'll find if you're honest it will probably conform to your actions in life.  Only those with high levels of discipline in my opinion can overcome their predispositions toward darkness.   Having beliefs in a power greater than you can help guide you past ill behavior that over time will bring you tragedy and tears as you choose to be either the victim or victimizer.

R.I.P. Lola (Eudocia Tomas Pulido)

This is a fascinating and very sad story that only found some redemption by showing how much love this kind woman named Eudocia Tomas Pulido but simply called Lola gave to the family that enslaved her.   I had to read it to the end and all throughout the story I felt sadness.   In the end, it is a beautiful story of a captive soul who made the best of her circumstances and retained her essential humanity.    

By Alex Tizon in the Atlantic

Shirley Knight - R.I.P.

I just saw again an episode of the fugitive for the umpteenth time.  This was titled Echo of a Nightmare.

Shirley Knight played a policewoman in this episode.   She must have been in her early twenties then and she was so beautiful.  It's hard to imagine that she just recently passed away at the age of 83.    I didn't know she was in desperate housewives since it's a show I have never watched.  It's great to know she was still working.

IMDB Shirley Knight

Washington Post - Bio

Joanna Moore

A sweet Georgia voice, beauty, and very good acting ability.

I've seen her in many shows and today they played a number of her acting examples on METV in Westerns.   I always recognize her when she's in a movie or an episode on TV.   Thankfully, her beauty still lives on in films.

Wiki

IMDB

Westerns on METV today with Joanna Moore in each episode

The Jean Lebec Story - Wagon Train

According to Hoyle - Maverick

English: Order of Adjectives

Another little known crazy big ancient and square vanilla English rule of Adjective use. 

Order of Adjectives

How Humans Formed Language

Evolution through teaching and toolmaking.

Toolmaking and Language

So it seems that the need to teach and communicate helped develop our language ability.

English: The Language of Science

English - tough translations

Those of us lucky enough to be born into the language may have an edge in science.  Still, I've found many who have learned it as their second language mastered it often beyond native speakers.  It is a challenge but it can be overcome.

Having a Growth Mindset

Great article on learning and why physics can explain human innovation and enlightenment

Sandy Dennis

I just watched an episode of the fugitive titled The Other Side of the Mountain.  Dennis played a young West Virginia girl who became attracted to the fugitive, Jannsen.   She played the part well.   It is easy to imagine that she became a very successful actress during her time.  Her soft voice and expressive facial mannerisms are endearing and believable. 

Sandy Dennis 

I checked to see what else she was doing and was saddened to read that she had passed away at age 54 from cancer. 

Jewell: Another Clint Eastwood Masterpiece?

Great Review

I can't wait to see it and am still amazed that a 90 year old Eastwood is out there creating memorable films.  May he live and work well into his 100's if he chooses to.


Oh and today I saw him as a gunfighter in an episode of the western Maverick.  He already had the moves to now seem obvious as pure Hollywood perfection on film.

Hugh Beamont - Best TV Dad

This is a great Video describing the background of Hugh Beaumont.  He's the TV dad that we all wouldn't have minded having for our own dad.

Review - The Art of Slow Writing Reflections on time, Craft, and Creativity - By Louise DeSalvo

Book Review - by Brent Herrick

The Art of Slow Writing  Reflections on time, Craft, and Creativity - By Louise DeSalvo

I’ll have to place this as one of the best books for an aspiring writer to get past the mental hurdles of completing a work.  I found myself already using some of the methods she described but hadn’t been given proof that it was a viable approach. Learning that other successful writers use these methods is a confirmation that these are justified.   But I only used a few of these and the list of ways to get through a project to completion is extensive in this excellent manual for writing. 

As the title describes there is an art to slow writing and just knowing that an expert  gives you permission to take your time in whatever manner needed to get it done. The worst thing to do is to give up.  Find a way if you’re at a logjam and DeSalvo gives you many methods to do so.  

The author also proves to you through her research that these aren’t all  just her methods but rather the approach taken by some of the most successful and prominent writers ever.  It helps to know that these are tried, true, and often used techniques to get the job done. As a writing teacher the author has honed the skills down to a precise collection of workable techniques to get through or around the obstacles to completing a work.

I now have to buy a copy of this book since I found one at the library but will have to add it to my writing reference collection and reread it often.

More than that, I now have to explore her other works since I have often found that if a writer has one good book out there that you’ve found you need to see what else they’ve done.  It’s often a wellspring of great reading.

I’d like to make this a longer and more complete review but the motivation to get to work on some of my longstanding projects pulls me away to get back to it.  So not only is this book a great information resource but I would now classify it as a motivational tool. 

***** Five Stars

Excellent 

Tennyson and God

That God, which ever lives and loves,

One God, one law, one element,

And one far-off divine event,

To which the whole creation moves.

—Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

Susan Oliver - Actress

Rt. 66
Welcome to Amity

Susan Oliver always plays parts that at some point test her with a wide range of emotional highs and lows, much more so than most acting parts.  In this part she plays someone who is firmly fixed on a goal that pits her against everyone in the town in Amity who knew her family.  She's in a struggle against the past and the town to move her mother from a pauper's grave to a paid plot that puts her mother in a prominent place.  She plays a strong willed and aggrieved young woman who wants to set the past right when it comes to her long dead mother.  The story of how and why the town is against the move is held back until the end.  She plays an angry and tortured daughter of a mother whom she now only wants to get even by moving her.  She wants to be free of her anger and sees this as her only way.  While it makes little sense to most when thinking of this situation it made for a strong

"God Willing, I'll be by before I leave, " were her last words. to her aunt.  Crying at the graveside she lets go of her anger and says , "poor woman, momma."

It was a sad but emotionally satisfying ending. 


IMDB
As for Susan Oliver the actress, her beauty is preserved on film long after the ravages of cancer and treatment took her life.  She played many parts (128) in her shortened acting career which only accentuate the loss to the art of acting and entertainment.

Sherree North

The Fugitive - The Walls of Night

She plays a waitress and as in any part she plays she is real. 


IMDB

Arelene Martel - Beautiful

IMDB 

Wiki

Have gun will travel  - Richard Boone

Episode - The Princess and the Gunfighter

She always assumed the character and played those parts magically that placed her as a Princess or Royalty.

She passed away in 2014.  R.I.P

R.I.P. Georgann Johnson

Georgann Johnson IMDB

She played at least two episodes of the fugitive and many other roles where a wholesome and good natured wife fit the part.  It's sad to hear of her passing in 2018.