The demons of depression
Robin Williams apparently could no longer live with the demons that tortured him. To those who have no personal experience with serious depression, it may be difficult to understand. Every morning it is an amazing feat just to get up and out of bed, as you feel like there's no reason to go on. I do understand. I've been there, although I have no personal experience with substance abuse such as alcohol, cocaine, etc. However, I've certainly eaten my share of emotions in a vain effort to feel better. It does not work.
Not only was he seriously depressed, he also suffered from bipolar disorder. While I have been blessed not to be afflicted with that malady, I have seen very close friends trying to deal with it. It definitely made it more difficult for them, and I am sure for Robin Williams.
Robin had three films in post-production, a Mrs. Doubtfire sequel in pre-production and plenty of other things to keep him occupied. The sad fact is that we live in a nation where many still consider depression to not really be an illness. It definitely is, and it isn't an easy one to treat. Think about this little factoid for a moment. Back in 1998 Robin did a film titled Patch Adams. Based on a real life doctor who used humor to treat his patients, Robin worked with another actor who would go on to win an Academy Award for acting. An actor whose demons drove him into a death spiral earlier this year. Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Robin Williams was the "Bob Hope" of his generation, working tirelessly to entertain the troops. He didn't seek out praise for this work, he just knew it was necessary and he did it.
I'm very sad at this turn of events. Robin Williams was one of my favorite talents. His versatility was limitless. At this very moment, his guest appearance on Happy Days is being aired. Even then, before he was a big star, his talents were easy to see. He could make you laugh with just a facial expression. He had impeccable timing. He could do drama, comedy, very dark films and just about everything. He was even an action star of sorts in Hook.
RIP Robin Williams. You will be sorely missed. Here's a few clips of some of my favorite Robin Williams moments:
* * *
Todd Bridges demonstrated today that people in general and celebrities in particular need to think before speaking. Moments after the news of the death of Robin Williams hit the "wires", Bridges was speaking out calling it a "selfish act." He then went on to say, "You don't think that my life has been hell and I've had so many ups and downs now. If I did that what am i showing my children that when it gets tough that's the way out No you gotta buckle down ask God to help you. That's when prayer really comes into effect."
Suicide is indeed a selfish act, but you don't need to be saying that about someone who has just taken their own life. Maybe a few days later. Maybe never. We don't need to be told or sold on the fact it is selfish. It is many other things. Todd Bridges should have just remained silent and let us think him foolish rather than spouting this drivel and removing any doubt.
Tell you what, Todd. When you've sat there with the .357 magnum in one hand, the bullets in the other and you can't get the thought out of your head that the best way to go is to load the gun and pull the trigger; and you get past that moment, you'll have earned the right to speak out on this subject. Until then, just shut the hell up. Don't you have some mall to guard?
* * *
Uber and Lyft are rivals in the new use an app (or make a call) to pay for a ride/avoid using a taxi business. Uber is being accused of fighting dirty, in a story reported by CNNMoney. While it may not be company policy, employees of Uber are ordering and then canceling rides from Lyft drivers. This costs the driver's money for gas as they speed to a location only to be told en route the ride has been nixed. It costs these same drivers a chance at other, legitimate trips that people can't order because the driver is occupied with the bogus order.
It is dirty pool. If I ran Lyft, I'd fix it that the first two cancellations from a phone number are free. Once those two free passes are used, "passengers" who want to order a ride must provide a credit card and pay a $15 deposit, which is forfeited if the ride is cancelled. Okay, make it three cancellations in a four month period. That's fair.
Pizza parlors can't send their drivers to payphones to dial their rivals and place bogus orders.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Suicide is a permanent resolution to a temporary problem.
Whoever thought up giving the man who'd just lost his wife of 63 years a puppy is a freaking genius.
Did someone remember to send a big plate of sour grapes over to Donald Sterling now that the Clippers have been sold?
I'm not surprised that Robin Williams paid for the scholarship that enabled Jessica Chastain to attend Julliard.
Someone took a collection of 1870s era baseball cards on to Antiques Roadshow. Good thing they turned down the earlier offer of $5,000 for the set, since it has now been appraised at $1 million. Just proves life is filled with surprise and mystery.
How cool is it that a woman who is about to get married, invited the police officer who saved her life when she was a two month old infant, to her wedding!!
Did the Quaker Oats people work to deny the woman who portrayed "Aunt Jemima" on their syrup products a share of royalties? Interesting question for the courts to work out.
I have trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that the co-host of the new edition of "Candid Camera" has a Ph.D. in Neuroscience.
People calling for Mitt Romney to run for the presidency in 2016 are the answer to the prayers of Democrats.
I wouldn't do the experiment this one guy did, liking everything on his FB page for two days. Heck, I wouldn't do that for two hours.
* * *
August 12th in History:
30 BC – Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, commits suicide, allegedly by means of an asp bite.
1099 – First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon Crusaders under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon defeat Fatimid forces led by Al-Afdal Shahanshah. This is considered the last engagement of the First Crusade.
1121 – Battle of Didgori: The Georgian army under King David IV wins a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi.
1164 – Battle of Harim: Nur ad-Din Zangi defeats the Crusader armies of the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch.
1323 – Signature of the Treaty of Nöteborg between Sweden and Novgorod (Russia), that regulates the border between the two countries for the first time.
1480 – Battle of Otranto: Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam; they are later honored in the Church.
1499 – First engagement of the Battle of Zonchio between Venetian and Ottoman fleets.
1624 – The president of Louis XIII of France's royal council is arrested, leaving Cardinal Richelieu in the role of the King's principal minister.
1676 – Praying Indian John Alderman shoots and kills Metacomet, the Wampanoag war chief, ending King Philip's War.
1687 – Battle of Mohács: Charles of Lorraine defeats the Ottoman Empire.
1793 – The Rhône and Loire départments are created when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire is split into two.
1806 – Santiago de Liniers, 1st Count of Buenos Aires re-takes the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina after the first British invasion.
1831 – French intervention forces William I of the Netherlands to abandon his attempt to suppress the Belgian Revolution.
1851 – Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine.
1877 – Asaph Hall discovers the Mars moon Deimos.
1883 – The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
1898 – An Armistice ends the Spanish–American War.
1898 – The Hawaiian flag is lowered from ʻIolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the flag of the United States to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawaii to the United States.
1914 – World War I: The United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary; the countries of the British Empire follow suit.
1914 – World War I: The Battle of Haelen a.k.a. (Battle of the Silver Helmets) a clash between large Belgian and German cavalry formations at Halen, Belgium.
1944 – Waffen-SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.
1944 – Nazi German troops end the week-long Wola massacre, during which time at least 40,000 people were killed indiscriminately or in mass executions.
1944 – Alençon is liberated by General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, the first city in France to be liberated from the Nazis by French forces.
1948 – USS Nevada is struck from the naval record.
1950 – Korean War: Bloody Gulch massacre—American POWs are massacred by North Korean Army.
1952 – The Night of the Murdered Poets: Thirteen prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union.
1953 – Nuclear weapons testing: The Soviet atomic bomb project continues with the detonation of Joe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon.
1953 – The islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia in Greece are severely damaged by an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale.
1958 – Art Kane photographs 57 notable jazz musicians in the black and white group portrait "A Great Day in Harlem" in front of a Brownstone in New York City.
1960 – Echo 1A, NASA's first successful communications satellite, is launched.
1964 – South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country's racist policies.
1964 – Charlie Wilson, one of the Great Train Robbers, escapes from Winson Green Prison in Birmingham, England, United Kingdom.
1969 – Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside.
1976 – Between 1,000 and 3,500 Palestinians are killed in the Tel al-Zaatar massacre, one of the bloodiest events of the Lebanese Civil War
1977 – The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
1977 – The 1977 riots in Sri Lanka, targeting the minority Sri Lankan Tamil people, begin, less than a month after the United National Party came to power. Over 300 Tamils are killed.
1978 – The Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of China is signed.
1980 – The Montevideo Treaty, establishing the Latin American Integration Association, is signed.
1981 – The IBM Personal Computer is released.
1982 – Mexico announces that it is unable to pay its enormous external debt, marking the beginning of a debt crisis that spreads to all of Latin America and the Third World.
1985 – Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into Osutaka ridge in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520, to become the worst single-plane air disaster.
1990 – Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton found to date, is discovered by Sue Hendrickson in South Dakota.
1992 – Canada, Mexico and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
1993 – Pope John Paul II starts his 8th annual World Youth Day in Denver's Mile High Stadium.
1994 – Major League Baseball players go on strike. This will force the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.
2000 – The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise.
2004 – Mr. Lee Hsien Loong is sworn in as Singapore's third Prime Minister.
2005 – Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, is fatally shot by an LTTE sniper at his home.
2007 – The bulk carrier MV New Flame collides with the oil tanker Torm Gertrud at the southernmost tip of Gibraltar, ending up partially submerged.
Famous Folk Born on August 12th:
Diamond Jim Brady (rumored to have been the first person in New York City to own a car)
Cecile B. DeMille
Christy Mathewson
Pauline Frederick
Alfred Lunt
Jane Wyatt
Cantinflas
Dale Bumpers
John Derek
Buck Owens
George Soros
Charlie O'Donnell
Parnelli Jones
John Cazale
Skip Caray
Willie Horton
Pat Metheny
Terry Taylor
Sir Mix-a-Lot
Britt Morgan
Anthony Swofford
Michael Ian Black
Pete Sampras
Rebecca Gayheart
Jonathan Coachman
Casey Affleck
Plaxico Burress
Dominique Swain
Cara Delevingne
Not only was he seriously depressed, he also suffered from bipolar disorder. While I have been blessed not to be afflicted with that malady, I have seen very close friends trying to deal with it. It definitely made it more difficult for them, and I am sure for Robin Williams.
Robin had three films in post-production, a Mrs. Doubtfire sequel in pre-production and plenty of other things to keep him occupied. The sad fact is that we live in a nation where many still consider depression to not really be an illness. It definitely is, and it isn't an easy one to treat. Think about this little factoid for a moment. Back in 1998 Robin did a film titled Patch Adams. Based on a real life doctor who used humor to treat his patients, Robin worked with another actor who would go on to win an Academy Award for acting. An actor whose demons drove him into a death spiral earlier this year. Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Robin Williams was the "Bob Hope" of his generation, working tirelessly to entertain the troops. He didn't seek out praise for this work, he just knew it was necessary and he did it.
I'm very sad at this turn of events. Robin Williams was one of my favorite talents. His versatility was limitless. At this very moment, his guest appearance on Happy Days is being aired. Even then, before he was a big star, his talents were easy to see. He could make you laugh with just a facial expression. He had impeccable timing. He could do drama, comedy, very dark films and just about everything. He was even an action star of sorts in Hook.
RIP Robin Williams. You will be sorely missed. Here's a few clips of some of my favorite Robin Williams moments:
* * *
Todd Bridges demonstrated today that people in general and celebrities in particular need to think before speaking. Moments after the news of the death of Robin Williams hit the "wires", Bridges was speaking out calling it a "selfish act." He then went on to say, "You don't think that my life has been hell and I've had so many ups and downs now. If I did that what am i showing my children that when it gets tough that's the way out No you gotta buckle down ask God to help you. That's when prayer really comes into effect."
Suicide is indeed a selfish act, but you don't need to be saying that about someone who has just taken their own life. Maybe a few days later. Maybe never. We don't need to be told or sold on the fact it is selfish. It is many other things. Todd Bridges should have just remained silent and let us think him foolish rather than spouting this drivel and removing any doubt.
Tell you what, Todd. When you've sat there with the .357 magnum in one hand, the bullets in the other and you can't get the thought out of your head that the best way to go is to load the gun and pull the trigger; and you get past that moment, you'll have earned the right to speak out on this subject. Until then, just shut the hell up. Don't you have some mall to guard?
* * *
Uber and Lyft are rivals in the new use an app (or make a call) to pay for a ride/avoid using a taxi business. Uber is being accused of fighting dirty, in a story reported by CNNMoney. While it may not be company policy, employees of Uber are ordering and then canceling rides from Lyft drivers. This costs the driver's money for gas as they speed to a location only to be told en route the ride has been nixed. It costs these same drivers a chance at other, legitimate trips that people can't order because the driver is occupied with the bogus order.
It is dirty pool. If I ran Lyft, I'd fix it that the first two cancellations from a phone number are free. Once those two free passes are used, "passengers" who want to order a ride must provide a credit card and pay a $15 deposit, which is forfeited if the ride is cancelled. Okay, make it three cancellations in a four month period. That's fair.
Pizza parlors can't send their drivers to payphones to dial their rivals and place bogus orders.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Suicide is a permanent resolution to a temporary problem.
Whoever thought up giving the man who'd just lost his wife of 63 years a puppy is a freaking genius.
Did someone remember to send a big plate of sour grapes over to Donald Sterling now that the Clippers have been sold?
I'm not surprised that Robin Williams paid for the scholarship that enabled Jessica Chastain to attend Julliard.
Someone took a collection of 1870s era baseball cards on to Antiques Roadshow. Good thing they turned down the earlier offer of $5,000 for the set, since it has now been appraised at $1 million. Just proves life is filled with surprise and mystery.
How cool is it that a woman who is about to get married, invited the police officer who saved her life when she was a two month old infant, to her wedding!!
Did the Quaker Oats people work to deny the woman who portrayed "Aunt Jemima" on their syrup products a share of royalties? Interesting question for the courts to work out.
I have trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that the co-host of the new edition of "Candid Camera" has a Ph.D. in Neuroscience.
People calling for Mitt Romney to run for the presidency in 2016 are the answer to the prayers of Democrats.
I wouldn't do the experiment this one guy did, liking everything on his FB page for two days. Heck, I wouldn't do that for two hours.
* * *
August 12th in History:
30 BC – Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, commits suicide, allegedly by means of an asp bite.
1099 – First Crusade: Battle of Ascalon Crusaders under the command of Godfrey of Bouillon defeat Fatimid forces led by Al-Afdal Shahanshah. This is considered the last engagement of the First Crusade.
1121 – Battle of Didgori: The Georgian army under King David IV wins a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi.
1164 – Battle of Harim: Nur ad-Din Zangi defeats the Crusader armies of the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch.
1323 – Signature of the Treaty of Nöteborg between Sweden and Novgorod (Russia), that regulates the border between the two countries for the first time.
1480 – Battle of Otranto: Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam; they are later honored in the Church.
1499 – First engagement of the Battle of Zonchio between Venetian and Ottoman fleets.
1624 – The president of Louis XIII of France's royal council is arrested, leaving Cardinal Richelieu in the role of the King's principal minister.
1676 – Praying Indian John Alderman shoots and kills Metacomet, the Wampanoag war chief, ending King Philip's War.
1687 – Battle of Mohács: Charles of Lorraine defeats the Ottoman Empire.
1793 – The Rhône and Loire départments are created when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire is split into two.
1806 – Santiago de Liniers, 1st Count of Buenos Aires re-takes the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina after the first British invasion.
1831 – French intervention forces William I of the Netherlands to abandon his attempt to suppress the Belgian Revolution.
1851 – Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine.
1877 – Asaph Hall discovers the Mars moon Deimos.
1883 – The last quagga dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
1898 – An Armistice ends the Spanish–American War.
1898 – The Hawaiian flag is lowered from ʻIolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the flag of the United States to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawaii to the United States.
1914 – World War I: The United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary; the countries of the British Empire follow suit.
1914 – World War I: The Battle of Haelen a.k.a. (Battle of the Silver Helmets) a clash between large Belgian and German cavalry formations at Halen, Belgium.
1944 – Waffen-SS troops massacre 560 people in Sant'Anna di Stazzema.
1944 – Nazi German troops end the week-long Wola massacre, during which time at least 40,000 people were killed indiscriminately or in mass executions.
1944 – Alençon is liberated by General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, the first city in France to be liberated from the Nazis by French forces.
1948 – USS Nevada is struck from the naval record.
1950 – Korean War: Bloody Gulch massacre—American POWs are massacred by North Korean Army.
1952 – The Night of the Murdered Poets: Thirteen prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union.
1953 – Nuclear weapons testing: The Soviet atomic bomb project continues with the detonation of Joe 4, the first Soviet thermonuclear weapon.
1953 – The islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia in Greece are severely damaged by an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale.
1958 – Art Kane photographs 57 notable jazz musicians in the black and white group portrait "A Great Day in Harlem" in front of a Brownstone in New York City.
1960 – Echo 1A, NASA's first successful communications satellite, is launched.
1964 – South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country's racist policies.
1964 – Charlie Wilson, one of the Great Train Robbers, escapes from Winson Green Prison in Birmingham, England, United Kingdom.
1969 – Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside.
1976 – Between 1,000 and 3,500 Palestinians are killed in the Tel al-Zaatar massacre, one of the bloodiest events of the Lebanese Civil War
1977 – The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
1977 – The 1977 riots in Sri Lanka, targeting the minority Sri Lankan Tamil people, begin, less than a month after the United National Party came to power. Over 300 Tamils are killed.
1978 – The Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of China is signed.
1980 – The Montevideo Treaty, establishing the Latin American Integration Association, is signed.
1981 – The IBM Personal Computer is released.
1982 – Mexico announces that it is unable to pay its enormous external debt, marking the beginning of a debt crisis that spreads to all of Latin America and the Third World.
1985 – Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into Osutaka ridge in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520, to become the worst single-plane air disaster.
1990 – Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton found to date, is discovered by Sue Hendrickson in South Dakota.
1992 – Canada, Mexico and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
1993 – Pope John Paul II starts his 8th annual World Youth Day in Denver's Mile High Stadium.
1994 – Major League Baseball players go on strike. This will force the cancellation of the 1994 World Series.
2000 – The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise.
2004 – Mr. Lee Hsien Loong is sworn in as Singapore's third Prime Minister.
2005 – Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, is fatally shot by an LTTE sniper at his home.
2007 – The bulk carrier MV New Flame collides with the oil tanker Torm Gertrud at the southernmost tip of Gibraltar, ending up partially submerged.
Famous Folk Born on August 12th:
Diamond Jim Brady (rumored to have been the first person in New York City to own a car)
Cecile B. DeMille
Christy Mathewson
Pauline Frederick
Alfred Lunt
Jane Wyatt
Cantinflas
Dale Bumpers
John Derek
Buck Owens
George Soros
Charlie O'Donnell
Parnelli Jones
John Cazale
Skip Caray
Willie Horton
Pat Metheny
Terry Taylor
Sir Mix-a-Lot
Britt Morgan
Anthony Swofford
Michael Ian Black
Pete Sampras
Rebecca Gayheart
Jonathan Coachman
Casey Affleck
Plaxico Burress
Dominique Swain
Cara Delevingne
posted by me at 2:47 PM
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