Please don't die
For anyone who has been reading these musings in the last few years, it isn't a secret that my health is not great. I'm a living medical miracle. But until this week I've never had anyone say to me, in the bluntest way possible, "please don't die". I was taken aback. Yes, I have a number of clients who ask about my health every single time we make contact (phone, office visit, email and so on), but none have ever been quite that direct.
I don't have a conscious death wish. I want to live a long life, helping others and enjoying myself. But I struggle with the concept of denying myself those things I enjoy, at least enough to make my eating habits healthy ones. Or at least healthy enough that they would prolong rather than shorten this existence. Yet I find myself making choices in what I eat and when I eat it that aren't the best possible choices, so I'm wondering if there is a part of my subconscious that is tired of this life. Or maybe frustrated at the challenges I have to deal with daily.
After giving in to oxygen for the purpose of ambulation (as my doctors described it), I figured I'd be done with having to sit down to catch my breath after any walk that was more than a few steps. That isn't turning out to be the case. My left foot is swelling for some reason, probably related to my failure to limit my intake of sodium as I should be doing. When I've been headed home after teaching, I often rationalize that it is easier to drive through a fast food place than it is to have to park and go into a Subway or something similar. Subway isn't the best choice either, but it's head and shoulders above McDonald's or something along those lines. Although I must admit, the In-and-Out trip last weekend was marvelous.
I've decided that while I definitely want to live, I don't want to live if I have to completely deny myself the foods that give me pleasure. The struggle from here onward is one of finding a balance. As Mr. Miyagi told Daniel-san in the first Karate Kid film, finding balance gives one strength. I'm not guaranteeing success, but I'm again ready to try with more fervor. I'm ready to push forward instead of backward.
* * *
I must have missed the memo. Did you? The one that says a raised middle finger is a sign of remorse for the family of your victim. Apparently that is the way that Shawn Swarthout expressed his feelings for the family of the woman he hit while allegedly driving under the influence.
The woman was aboard a scooter and her injuries included broken legs, a shattered face and a bleed in her brain. She will likely need to spend a year in a wheelchair, recovering.
Considering that Mr. Swarthout has two previous convictions for DUI, and was driving on a suspended license, it is time to revisit the subject of what to do to prevent this type of thing. Obviously suspending licenses doesn't work for repeat offenders. In fact, it really don't work all that well for first-time offenders. People who will get behind the wheel once will do it again.
I have a good friend who has two DUI convictions. They limit this friend's ability to get work. This friend doesn't have a drinking problem, they just like to have a good time. I see nothing "wrong" with this person. I don't think they would ever get behind the wheel while intoxicated because of the harsh penalties they would face if they were caught with another DUI. But this belief of mine nor the threat of those penalties aren't iron-clad guarantees that anyone with a DUI conviction on their record won't make that mistake a second time. Even one person killed by a repeat DUI offender is too many. Hell, any person killed by a drunk driver is too many.
How do we solve this problem? Ignition interlock devices (IID) need to become mandatory for every single person convicted of a DUI. Permanently. The monthly rental cost would come down if companies knew that a driver would need to keep renting the device for a long time, rather than the current two or three years. Insurance companies could be enticed to offer discounts to drivers with DUI convictions because there would be a device in place to prevent any reoccurrence of a DUI incident. The penalty for tampering with one of these IIDs would need to be so severe that no one would ever be tempted to take the risk.
We can't gamble with the lives of the innocent. I've lost count of the number of times I had to write a news story about someone who was murdered by a drunk driver. A few stand out. One was a casino cocktail waitress who was driving home after tipping back more than a few after her shift. She lost control of her sports car and killed a little 5 year old boy. Then there was a guy driving a big truck who sped through a red light at an estimated 75 mph and he took the life of a 19 year old.
All-American track and field star Jill Peckler, along with her father and brother were killed by a drunk driver. So were Sam Kinison, Jack Shea (an Olympic gold medalist), Bob Clark (director of "Porky's"), California Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart, Senator Strom Thurmond's daughter and then there is the story of Larry Mahoney.
Larry Mahoney had a BAC of .24 on a Saturday in May of 1988. He was driving his pick-up truck the wrong way on a rural interstate highway in Kentucky when he hit a school bus that had been converted to use as a church bus. 27 of the 64 passengers on the bus died. 34 others were injured.
Mr. Mahoney had a prior arrest for DUI, in 1984. He served no jail time, paid a fine and was ordered to attend an alcohol education program. Apparently the only thing he learned in that program was how to not get caught for a DUI until he took 27 lives. 27 people killed needlessly. One simple device placed in his car could have prevented all those tragedies.
This must stop.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
A very pregnant Hayden Panettiere looks more gorgeous than ever, in my eyes.
Video of some guy's ankle snapping during a brawl would probably make Joe Theismann cringe in agony.
There's something wrong with a world where Ray J earns roughly $90,000 per quarter from his sex tape with Kim Kardashian.
The only reason that the mother of Honey Boo Boo doesn't move lower on the stupidity list after she claims her boyfriend is a "rehabilitated child molester" is because she was already as low as it is possible to go on that scale. There are amoeba that are genius level creatures compared to this moron.
The group Survivor is suing Sony Entertainment over royalties from their big hit "Eye of the Tiger" which they claim threatened to remove all of the band's music from digital services if they didn't stop complaining. I guess a lawsuit is a complaint, so we'll have to wait and see if their songs are pulled.
If a woman is stupid enough to want to marry Charles Manson, let her. Just so they can't reproduce.
People who play characters allowed to speak at amusement parks lie to children?? Shocking. Hardly. They're trained liars I suspect.
No offense toward Pope Francis intended, but the chronic problem of priests of the Catholic church molesting children is a lot more reprehensible than Brittney Maynard's decision to end her life. We won't even talk about the level of reprehensibility of the Spanish Inquisition. I'd try, but when dealing with Popes, you can't Torquemada anything.
Amy Adams may be 40, but she's still beautiful, incredibly talented, and has a very bright future.
It is difficult to take anything seriously that is said by someone who wants to be called Uncle Poodle.
I pick between the three main late night talk shows based on who the guests are, but in my mind Jimmy Fallon is much more entertaining than either of his competitors. I always watch his monologue, but once it is time for guests, then it depends on which visitor I find most interesting.
So Marlon Wayans says that he uses the term "n****" as a "a colloquial term of camaraderie." Or so he claims in defending himself against a lawsuit. I'd like to see African-Americans reach consensus on whether or not it is appropriate for them to use the term that way. I doubt that will ever happen. I do know many of the African-Americans I know feels like Mr. Wayans does about the term...as long as white people aren't using it.
* * *
November 21st in History:
164 BC – Judas Maccabeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, restores the Temple in Jerusalem. This event is commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah.
235 – Pope Anterus succeeds Pontian as the nineteenth pope. During the persecutions of emperor Maximinus Thrax he is martyred.
1386 – Timur of Samarkand captures and sacks the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, taking King Bagrat V of Georgia captive.
1620 – Plymouth Colony settlers sign the Mayflower Compact (November 11, O.S.).
1783 – In Paris, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes, make the first untethered hot air balloon flight.
1789 – North Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution and is admitted as the 12th U.S. state.
1861 – American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis appoints Judah Benjamin secretary of war.
1877 – Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record and play sound.
1894 – Port Arthur, Manchuria, falls to the Japanese, a decisive victory of the First Sino-Japanese War, after which Japanese troops are accused of the massacre of the remaining inhabitants of the city. (Reports conflict on this subject.)
1902 – The Philadelphia Football Athletics defeated the Kanaweola Athletic Club of Elmira, New York, 39–0, in the first ever professional American football night game.
1905 – Albert Einstein's paper, "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", is published in the journal Annalen der Physik. This paper reveals the relationship between energy and mass. This leads to the mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc².
1910 – Sailors onboard Brazil's most powerful military units, including the brand-new warships Minas Geraes, São Paulo, and Bahia, violently rebel in what is now known as the Revolta da Chibata (Revolt of the Lash).
1916 – World War I: A mine explodes and sinks HMHS Britannic in the Aegean Sea, killing 30 people.
1918 – Flag of Estonia, previously used by pro-independence activists, is formally adopted as national flag of the Republic of Estonia.
1918 – A pogrom takes place in Lwów (now Lviv); over three days, at least 50 Jews and 270 Ukrainian Christians are killed by Poles.
1920 – Irish War of Independence: In Dublin, 31 people are killed in what became known as "Bloody Sunday". This included fourteen British informants, fourteen Irish civilians and three Irish Republican Army prisoners.
1922 – Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia takes the oath of office, becoming the first female United States Senator.
1927 – Columbine Mine massacre: Striking coal miners are allegedly attacked with machine guns by a detachment of state police dressed in civilian clothes.
1942 – The completion of the Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan Highway) is celebrated (however, the highway is not usable by general vehicles until 1943).
1945 – The United Auto Workers strike 92 General Motors plants in 50 cities to back up worker demands for a 30-percent raise.
1950 – Two Canadian National Railway trains collide in northeastern British Columbia in the Canoe River train crash; the death toll is 21, with 17 of them Canadian troops bound for Korea.
1953 – The British Natural History Museum announces that the "Piltdown Man" skull, initially believed to be one of the most important fossilized hominid skulls ever found, is a hoax.
1959 – American disc jockey Alan Freed, who had popularized the term "rock and roll" and music of that style, is fired from WABC-AM radio for refusing to deny allegations that he had participated in the payola scandal.
1962 – The Chinese People's Liberation Army declares a unilateral ceasefire in the Sino-Indian War.
1964 – The Verrazano–Narrows Bridge opens to traffic. (At the time it is the world's longest suspension bridge.)
1964 – Second Vatican Council: The third session of the Roman Catholic Church's ecumenical council closes.
1967 – Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland tells news reporters: "I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing."
1969 – U.S. President Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Satō agree in Washington, D.C., on the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. Under the terms of the agreement, the U.S. is to retain its rights to bases on the island, but these are to be nuclear-free.
1969 – The first permanent ARPANET link is established between UCLA and SRI.
1970 – Vietnam War: Operation Ivory Coast: A joint United States Air Force and Army team raids the Sơn Tây prisoner-of-war camp in an attempt to free American prisoners of war thought to be held there.
1971 – Indian troops, partly aided by Mukti Bahini (Bengali guerrillas), defeat the Pakistan army in the Battle of Garibpur.
1972 – Voters in South Korea overwhelmingly approve a new constitution, giving legitimacy to Park Chung-hee and the Fourth Republic.
1974 – The Birmingham pub bombings kill 21 people. The Birmingham Six are sentenced to life in prison for the crime but subsequently acquitted.
1977 – Minister of Internal Affairs Allan Highet announces that the national anthems of New Zealand shall be the traditional anthem "God Save the Queen" and "God Defend New Zealand", by Thomas Bracken (lyrics) and John Joseph Woods (music), both being of equal status as appropriate to the occasion.
1979 – The United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, is attacked by a mob and set on fire, killing four.
1980 – A deadly fire breaks out at the MGM Grand Hotel in Paradise, Nevada (now Bally's Las Vegas). Eighty-seven people are killed and more than 650 are injured in the worst disaster in Nevada history.
1985 – United States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard is arrested for spying after being caught giving Israel classified information on Arab nations. He is subsequently sentenced to life in prison.
1986 – Iran–Contra affair: National Security Council member Oliver North and his secretary start to shred documents allegedly implicating them in the sale of weapons to Iran and channeling the proceeds to help fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
1992 – A major tornado strikes the Houston, Texas area during the afternoon. Over the next two days the largest tornado outbreak ever to occur in the US during November spawns over 100 tornadoes before ending on the 23rd.
1995 – The Dayton Peace Agreement is initialed at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio, ending three and a half years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The agreement is formally ratified in Paris, on December 14 that same year.
1996 – Humberto Vidal explosion: Thirty-three people die when a Humberto Vidal shoe shop explodes.
2002 – NATO invites Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to become members.
2004 – The second round of the Ukrainian presidential election is held, giving rise to massive protests and controversy over the election's integrity.
2004 – The island of Dominica is hit by the most destructive earthquake in its history. The northern half of the island sustains the most damage, especially the town of Portsmouth. It is also felt in neighboring Guadeloupe, where one person is killed.
2004 – The Paris Club agrees to write off 80% (up to $100 billion) of Iraq's external debt.
2006 – Anti-Syrian Lebanese Minister and MP Pierre Gemayel is assassinated in suburban Beirut.
2009 – A mine explosion in Heilongjiang province, northeastern China, kills 108.
2012 – At least 28 are wounded after a bomb is thrown onto a bus in Tel Aviv.
2013 – A supermarket roof collapse in Riga, Zolitude, Latvia killing 54 people.
Famous Folk Born on November 21st:
Voltaire
Lewis H. Morgan
Hetty Green
Pope Benedict XV
Tom Horn
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Coleman Hawkins
Sid Luckman
Ralph Meeker
Stan "The Man" Musial
Joseph Campanella
Georgia Frontiere
Henry Hartsfield
Laurence Luckinbill
Marlo Thomas
Dr. John
Richard "Demo Dick" Marcinko (founder of SEAL Team Six)
Juliet Mills
Dick Durbin
Earl Monroe
Harold Ramis (his genius is missed)
Goldie Hawn (still looks amazing)
George Zimmer
Lorna Luft (Liza Minelli's sister)
Nicollete Sheridan
Bjork
Reggie Lewis
Troy Aikman
Ken Griffey, Jr.
Michael Strahan
Rain Phoenix
I don't have a conscious death wish. I want to live a long life, helping others and enjoying myself. But I struggle with the concept of denying myself those things I enjoy, at least enough to make my eating habits healthy ones. Or at least healthy enough that they would prolong rather than shorten this existence. Yet I find myself making choices in what I eat and when I eat it that aren't the best possible choices, so I'm wondering if there is a part of my subconscious that is tired of this life. Or maybe frustrated at the challenges I have to deal with daily.
After giving in to oxygen for the purpose of ambulation (as my doctors described it), I figured I'd be done with having to sit down to catch my breath after any walk that was more than a few steps. That isn't turning out to be the case. My left foot is swelling for some reason, probably related to my failure to limit my intake of sodium as I should be doing. When I've been headed home after teaching, I often rationalize that it is easier to drive through a fast food place than it is to have to park and go into a Subway or something similar. Subway isn't the best choice either, but it's head and shoulders above McDonald's or something along those lines. Although I must admit, the In-and-Out trip last weekend was marvelous.
I've decided that while I definitely want to live, I don't want to live if I have to completely deny myself the foods that give me pleasure. The struggle from here onward is one of finding a balance. As Mr. Miyagi told Daniel-san in the first Karate Kid film, finding balance gives one strength. I'm not guaranteeing success, but I'm again ready to try with more fervor. I'm ready to push forward instead of backward.
* * *
I must have missed the memo. Did you? The one that says a raised middle finger is a sign of remorse for the family of your victim. Apparently that is the way that Shawn Swarthout expressed his feelings for the family of the woman he hit while allegedly driving under the influence.
The woman was aboard a scooter and her injuries included broken legs, a shattered face and a bleed in her brain. She will likely need to spend a year in a wheelchair, recovering.
Considering that Mr. Swarthout has two previous convictions for DUI, and was driving on a suspended license, it is time to revisit the subject of what to do to prevent this type of thing. Obviously suspending licenses doesn't work for repeat offenders. In fact, it really don't work all that well for first-time offenders. People who will get behind the wheel once will do it again.
I have a good friend who has two DUI convictions. They limit this friend's ability to get work. This friend doesn't have a drinking problem, they just like to have a good time. I see nothing "wrong" with this person. I don't think they would ever get behind the wheel while intoxicated because of the harsh penalties they would face if they were caught with another DUI. But this belief of mine nor the threat of those penalties aren't iron-clad guarantees that anyone with a DUI conviction on their record won't make that mistake a second time. Even one person killed by a repeat DUI offender is too many. Hell, any person killed by a drunk driver is too many.
How do we solve this problem? Ignition interlock devices (IID) need to become mandatory for every single person convicted of a DUI. Permanently. The monthly rental cost would come down if companies knew that a driver would need to keep renting the device for a long time, rather than the current two or three years. Insurance companies could be enticed to offer discounts to drivers with DUI convictions because there would be a device in place to prevent any reoccurrence of a DUI incident. The penalty for tampering with one of these IIDs would need to be so severe that no one would ever be tempted to take the risk.
We can't gamble with the lives of the innocent. I've lost count of the number of times I had to write a news story about someone who was murdered by a drunk driver. A few stand out. One was a casino cocktail waitress who was driving home after tipping back more than a few after her shift. She lost control of her sports car and killed a little 5 year old boy. Then there was a guy driving a big truck who sped through a red light at an estimated 75 mph and he took the life of a 19 year old.
All-American track and field star Jill Peckler, along with her father and brother were killed by a drunk driver. So were Sam Kinison, Jack Shea (an Olympic gold medalist), Bob Clark (director of "Porky's"), California Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart, Senator Strom Thurmond's daughter and then there is the story of Larry Mahoney.
Larry Mahoney had a BAC of .24 on a Saturday in May of 1988. He was driving his pick-up truck the wrong way on a rural interstate highway in Kentucky when he hit a school bus that had been converted to use as a church bus. 27 of the 64 passengers on the bus died. 34 others were injured.
Mr. Mahoney had a prior arrest for DUI, in 1984. He served no jail time, paid a fine and was ordered to attend an alcohol education program. Apparently the only thing he learned in that program was how to not get caught for a DUI until he took 27 lives. 27 people killed needlessly. One simple device placed in his car could have prevented all those tragedies.
This must stop.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
A very pregnant Hayden Panettiere looks more gorgeous than ever, in my eyes.
Video of some guy's ankle snapping during a brawl would probably make Joe Theismann cringe in agony.
There's something wrong with a world where Ray J earns roughly $90,000 per quarter from his sex tape with Kim Kardashian.
The only reason that the mother of Honey Boo Boo doesn't move lower on the stupidity list after she claims her boyfriend is a "rehabilitated child molester" is because she was already as low as it is possible to go on that scale. There are amoeba that are genius level creatures compared to this moron.
The group Survivor is suing Sony Entertainment over royalties from their big hit "Eye of the Tiger" which they claim threatened to remove all of the band's music from digital services if they didn't stop complaining. I guess a lawsuit is a complaint, so we'll have to wait and see if their songs are pulled.
If a woman is stupid enough to want to marry Charles Manson, let her. Just so they can't reproduce.
People who play characters allowed to speak at amusement parks lie to children?? Shocking. Hardly. They're trained liars I suspect.
No offense toward Pope Francis intended, but the chronic problem of priests of the Catholic church molesting children is a lot more reprehensible than Brittney Maynard's decision to end her life. We won't even talk about the level of reprehensibility of the Spanish Inquisition. I'd try, but when dealing with Popes, you can't Torquemada anything.
Amy Adams may be 40, but she's still beautiful, incredibly talented, and has a very bright future.
It is difficult to take anything seriously that is said by someone who wants to be called Uncle Poodle.
I pick between the three main late night talk shows based on who the guests are, but in my mind Jimmy Fallon is much more entertaining than either of his competitors. I always watch his monologue, but once it is time for guests, then it depends on which visitor I find most interesting.
So Marlon Wayans says that he uses the term "n****" as a "a colloquial term of camaraderie." Or so he claims in defending himself against a lawsuit. I'd like to see African-Americans reach consensus on whether or not it is appropriate for them to use the term that way. I doubt that will ever happen. I do know many of the African-Americans I know feels like Mr. Wayans does about the term...as long as white people aren't using it.
* * *
November 21st in History:
164 BC – Judas Maccabeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, restores the Temple in Jerusalem. This event is commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah.
235 – Pope Anterus succeeds Pontian as the nineteenth pope. During the persecutions of emperor Maximinus Thrax he is martyred.
1386 – Timur of Samarkand captures and sacks the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, taking King Bagrat V of Georgia captive.
1620 – Plymouth Colony settlers sign the Mayflower Compact (November 11, O.S.).
1783 – In Paris, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes, make the first untethered hot air balloon flight.
1789 – North Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution and is admitted as the 12th U.S. state.
1861 – American Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis appoints Judah Benjamin secretary of war.
1877 – Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record and play sound.
1894 – Port Arthur, Manchuria, falls to the Japanese, a decisive victory of the First Sino-Japanese War, after which Japanese troops are accused of the massacre of the remaining inhabitants of the city. (Reports conflict on this subject.)
1902 – The Philadelphia Football Athletics defeated the Kanaweola Athletic Club of Elmira, New York, 39–0, in the first ever professional American football night game.
1905 – Albert Einstein's paper, "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", is published in the journal Annalen der Physik. This paper reveals the relationship between energy and mass. This leads to the mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc².
1910 – Sailors onboard Brazil's most powerful military units, including the brand-new warships Minas Geraes, São Paulo, and Bahia, violently rebel in what is now known as the Revolta da Chibata (Revolt of the Lash).
1916 – World War I: A mine explodes and sinks HMHS Britannic in the Aegean Sea, killing 30 people.
1918 – Flag of Estonia, previously used by pro-independence activists, is formally adopted as national flag of the Republic of Estonia.
1918 – A pogrom takes place in Lwów (now Lviv); over three days, at least 50 Jews and 270 Ukrainian Christians are killed by Poles.
1920 – Irish War of Independence: In Dublin, 31 people are killed in what became known as "Bloody Sunday". This included fourteen British informants, fourteen Irish civilians and three Irish Republican Army prisoners.
1922 – Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia takes the oath of office, becoming the first female United States Senator.
1927 – Columbine Mine massacre: Striking coal miners are allegedly attacked with machine guns by a detachment of state police dressed in civilian clothes.
1942 – The completion of the Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan Highway) is celebrated (however, the highway is not usable by general vehicles until 1943).
1945 – The United Auto Workers strike 92 General Motors plants in 50 cities to back up worker demands for a 30-percent raise.
1950 – Two Canadian National Railway trains collide in northeastern British Columbia in the Canoe River train crash; the death toll is 21, with 17 of them Canadian troops bound for Korea.
1953 – The British Natural History Museum announces that the "Piltdown Man" skull, initially believed to be one of the most important fossilized hominid skulls ever found, is a hoax.
1959 – American disc jockey Alan Freed, who had popularized the term "rock and roll" and music of that style, is fired from WABC-AM radio for refusing to deny allegations that he had participated in the payola scandal.
1962 – The Chinese People's Liberation Army declares a unilateral ceasefire in the Sino-Indian War.
1964 – The Verrazano–Narrows Bridge opens to traffic. (At the time it is the world's longest suspension bridge.)
1964 – Second Vatican Council: The third session of the Roman Catholic Church's ecumenical council closes.
1967 – Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland tells news reporters: "I am absolutely certain that whereas in 1965 the enemy was winning, today he is certainly losing."
1969 – U.S. President Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Satō agree in Washington, D.C., on the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. Under the terms of the agreement, the U.S. is to retain its rights to bases on the island, but these are to be nuclear-free.
1969 – The first permanent ARPANET link is established between UCLA and SRI.
1970 – Vietnam War: Operation Ivory Coast: A joint United States Air Force and Army team raids the Sơn Tây prisoner-of-war camp in an attempt to free American prisoners of war thought to be held there.
1971 – Indian troops, partly aided by Mukti Bahini (Bengali guerrillas), defeat the Pakistan army in the Battle of Garibpur.
1972 – Voters in South Korea overwhelmingly approve a new constitution, giving legitimacy to Park Chung-hee and the Fourth Republic.
1974 – The Birmingham pub bombings kill 21 people. The Birmingham Six are sentenced to life in prison for the crime but subsequently acquitted.
1977 – Minister of Internal Affairs Allan Highet announces that the national anthems of New Zealand shall be the traditional anthem "God Save the Queen" and "God Defend New Zealand", by Thomas Bracken (lyrics) and John Joseph Woods (music), both being of equal status as appropriate to the occasion.
1979 – The United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, is attacked by a mob and set on fire, killing four.
1980 – A deadly fire breaks out at the MGM Grand Hotel in Paradise, Nevada (now Bally's Las Vegas). Eighty-seven people are killed and more than 650 are injured in the worst disaster in Nevada history.
1985 – United States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard is arrested for spying after being caught giving Israel classified information on Arab nations. He is subsequently sentenced to life in prison.
1986 – Iran–Contra affair: National Security Council member Oliver North and his secretary start to shred documents allegedly implicating them in the sale of weapons to Iran and channeling the proceeds to help fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
1992 – A major tornado strikes the Houston, Texas area during the afternoon. Over the next two days the largest tornado outbreak ever to occur in the US during November spawns over 100 tornadoes before ending on the 23rd.
1995 – The Dayton Peace Agreement is initialed at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio, ending three and a half years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The agreement is formally ratified in Paris, on December 14 that same year.
1996 – Humberto Vidal explosion: Thirty-three people die when a Humberto Vidal shoe shop explodes.
2002 – NATO invites Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to become members.
2004 – The second round of the Ukrainian presidential election is held, giving rise to massive protests and controversy over the election's integrity.
2004 – The island of Dominica is hit by the most destructive earthquake in its history. The northern half of the island sustains the most damage, especially the town of Portsmouth. It is also felt in neighboring Guadeloupe, where one person is killed.
2004 – The Paris Club agrees to write off 80% (up to $100 billion) of Iraq's external debt.
2006 – Anti-Syrian Lebanese Minister and MP Pierre Gemayel is assassinated in suburban Beirut.
2009 – A mine explosion in Heilongjiang province, northeastern China, kills 108.
2012 – At least 28 are wounded after a bomb is thrown onto a bus in Tel Aviv.
2013 – A supermarket roof collapse in Riga, Zolitude, Latvia killing 54 people.
Famous Folk Born on November 21st:
Voltaire
Lewis H. Morgan
Hetty Green
Pope Benedict XV
Tom Horn
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Coleman Hawkins
Sid Luckman
Ralph Meeker
Stan "The Man" Musial
Joseph Campanella
Georgia Frontiere
Henry Hartsfield
Laurence Luckinbill
Marlo Thomas
Dr. John
Richard "Demo Dick" Marcinko (founder of SEAL Team Six)
Juliet Mills
Dick Durbin
Earl Monroe
Harold Ramis (his genius is missed)
Goldie Hawn (still looks amazing)
George Zimmer
Lorna Luft (Liza Minelli's sister)
Nicollete Sheridan
Bjork
Reggie Lewis
Troy Aikman
Ken Griffey, Jr.
Michael Strahan
Rain Phoenix
posted by me at 3:24 PM
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