"The Water Terrace" and New York's Central Park

In their 1858 Greensward Plan, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux called the architectural heart of the Park "The Water Terrace," for its placement beside the Lake and the grand fountain in the center. Once the Angel of the Waters fountain was unveiled in 1873, however, the area became forever known as Bethesda Terrace. At the dedication, the artist's brochure quoted the Biblical verse from the Gospel of St. John 5:2-4: "Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called Bethesda whoever then first after the troubling of the waters stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had." The artist likened the healing powers of the angel to that of the clean and pure Croton water, delicately cascading down the fountain, that brought health to the people of New York City. The lily in her hand represents purity while the four figures below represent Peace, Health, Purity, and Temperance.

With their 1858 landscaping plan under construction, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux began adding architectural features to their Park design. Around 1874, Vaux designed a two-story boathouse at the eastern end of the Lake. Here visitors could purchase refreshments, take boat rides, and watch other boats. After this wooden Victorian structure with sloping mansard roof burned down, the current Loeb Boathouse took its place in the 1950s.

Today at the Boathouse visitors can enjoy a meal in any season, with overhead heating helping to extend as long as possible the pleasure of dining on the deck overlooking the Lake. More informal snacks are available on the outside terrace across from the bicycle rental concession. At Loeb you can also rent rowboats or take a ride in an authentic Venetian gondola. This is more than a ride, it is an "event" – with luck, your gondolier might just break into song at some point in the trip.

Fatal Attraction

Golden Gate Bridge officials have completed the first phase of a two-part feasibility study on erecting a suicide barrier — either by adding to or replacing the current railing or adding a horizontal net. "One thing we learned is that there is a workable solution," said Mary Currie, a spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Bridge. A plan may be ready for public input by as early as this fall, she added.

Ken Holmes, who has been medical examiner since 1998, joined the office in the 1970s. Conducting autopsies of bridge jumpers, he handled bodies so devastated that they were unrecognizable.

The fall from the bridge lasts four seconds and is comparable to a jump off a 25-story building, researchers say. At impact, the body is traveling 75 mph. Ribs and vertebrae shatter, puncturing lungs and other organs.

The study was hailed Monday by one 26-year-old San Franciscan who years ago survived a Golden Gate suicide jump.

Kevin Hines recalls leaping from the span as an emotionally distraught college freshman. His first thought after going into a frantic free-fall: "What did I just do? I don't want to die."

Hines landed feet first and recovered from severe internal injuries. He says increased publicity about the high frequency of such suicides as well as the sheer violence of the impact might have dissuaded him from taking his fateful plunge.

The Pride of Ventura

Ventura’s Moreton Bay fig, native to Australia, was planted in 1874 in Plaza Park. The tree is 73.5 feet tall, 140 feet wide and has an 8-foot, 8-inch trunk.
(Carlos Chavez / LAT)

Moscow's Glowing Concept

An artist’s rendering shows the “Moskva-City” project at night, when floodlights will bathe the towers in colors. The first buildings are due to be finished in 2009.
(Moscow City Government)

On this day in 1965 a new major league record was set for strikeouts in a game: 26 strikeouts, Philadelphia Phillies (16), Pittsburgh Pirates (10)

It's about time . . .

Instead of moving our clocks one hour forward every spring, then one hour backward every fall, why couldn't we just move them one-half hour forward this spring and be done with it ??

. . . and do you think daylight-saving time could be contributing to global warming ?? The longer we have sunlight, the more it heats the atmosphere.

Surfing in all it's glory

Happy Birthday to the gracious, beautiful and talented Peggy Fleming

In 1961, when Fleming was 12 years old, her coach William Kipp was killed in the crash of Sabena Flight 548 along with the rest of the United States figure skating team while en route to the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships. Fleming was subsequently coached by Carlo Fassi. She would be forced to define her own style in figure skating, a style that would lead to five U.S. titles, three World titles and the gold medal in the 1968 Olympics in Grenoble, France. Her award in Grenoble was singularly important for the American athletes and the nation as a whole, for this was the only gold medal that the U.S. Olympic team won in the 1968 Winter Games. It signaled a return to American dominance in the sport of women's figure skating following the unprecedented tragedy of the 1961 plane crash.

Tailless and it may become a Legend

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE — An experimental tailless jet that resembles a wing flew for the first time in a program that could lead to more fuel-efficient, quieter and higher-capacity aircraft, NASA said Thursday.

Controlled from a ground station, the 8.5%-scale version of the planned X-48B "blended wing body" aircraft took off July 20, climbed to 7,500 feet and landed about half an hour later, according to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in the Mojave Desert.

The X-48B resembles a wing, but the wing blends into a wide, flat fuselage, NASA and Boeing Co. said. The prototype is 500 pounds with a 21-foot wingspan. It has three engines.

The design is intended to provide more lift with less drag compared with the cylindrical fuselage of a traditional aircraft, reducing fuel consumption while cruising.

"Paris 1931" by Scott Murray

Artist Statement

These hand painted block prints and works on canvas exemplify my most recent works. Inspired by my own personal visions, universal symbolism and the rock art of primitive peoples, I feel that I have found a bridge between the modern and the ancient worlds. Each piece tells a unique story and is a visual record of events both real and imagined.

Over the past sixteen years, I have had numerous solo and group shows in the Southwest and on both coasts of the United States. Recent success and appreciation for my work has enabled me to produce artwork on a full time basis and expand my creative horizons.

I reside in an off-the-grid solar community near Taos, New Mexico, an I am actively involved in charitable organizations serving humanity, the earth and the animals.

(for more of Scott's artwork, click on the link below)

It won't go away . . .

Nervous X Games organizers breathed a sigh of relief last August when Travis Pastrana successfully executed a double back flip on his motorcycle in front of a captivated Staples Center audience, providing a signature moment in the 12-year history of the action-sports showcase. …

Privately, they hoped, the death-defying trick would be retired. …

Now comes word of an imitator, which is of little comfort but no big surprise to X Games General Manager Chris Stiepock, who notes, "The way progression works in these sports, riders can rarely own tricks all their own for very long — the copycats follow pretty quickly — and sure enough, this year's best-trick competition will see a rider from Minnesota attempt the same trick." …

The daredevil's name is Scott Murray, and a cautiously optimistic Stiepock says, "He's practiced it a ton and landed it on dirt, so he should be fine." …

X Games 13 starts Thursday.

Trying to kick the habit . . .

Walt Disney Co. is trying to kick the cinematic smoking habit.

In the most explicit announcement by a Hollywood studio, Chief Executive Robert A. Iger said Wednesday that the studio would snuff out depictions of smoking in Disney-label films. Above we see one of Walt Disney’s most memorable smokers: Cruella De Vil from “101 Dalmatians.”

The Master Remembers Everything

On this day in 2005 Greg Maddux, then with the Chicago Cubs, became the 13th pitcher in major league history to record his 3,000th career strikeout, in a game against the San Francisco Giants. Maddux is renowned among his peers for his encyclopedic knowledge of hitters -- He remembers everything but like the magician who never reveals his trick, the master changeup artist (who's also a skilled poker player) often replies with a wry smile, "I don't remember."

The "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night" Contest

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 2006 Results

Detective Bart Lasiter was in his office studying the light from his one small window falling on his super burrito when the door swung open to reveal a woman whose body said you've had your last burrito for a while, whose face said angels did exist, and whose eyes said she could make you dig your own grave and lick the shovel clean.

Jim Guigli
Carmichael, CA

A retired mechanical designer for the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory is the winner of the 24th running of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. A resident of the Sacramento suburb of Carmichael, Guigli displayed appalling powers of invention by submitting sixty entries to the 2006 Contest, including one that has been "honored" in the Historical Fiction Category. "My motivation for entering the contest," he confesses, "was to find a constructive outlet for my dementia."

An international literary parody contest, the competition honors the memory (if not the reputation) of Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873). The goal of the contest is the essence of simplicity: entrants are challenged to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels. Although best known for "The Last Days of Pompeii" (1834), which has been made into a movie three times, originating the expression "the pen is mightier than the sword," and phrases like "the great unwashed" and "pursuit of the almighty dollar," Bulwer-Lytton opened his novel Paul Clifford (1830) with the immortal words that the "Peanuts" beagle Snoopy plagiarized for years, "It was a dark and stormy night."

The contest began in 1982 as a quiet campus affair, attracting only three submissions. This response being a thunderous success by academic standards, the contest went public the following year and ever since has annually attracted thousands of entries from all over the world.

2008 Audi R8

Base price: $108,000

Price, as tested: $115,000 (est.)

Powertrain: Mid-mounted 4.2-liter V8 with variable-valve timing; rear-mounted six-speed manual transmission; all-wheel drive.

Horsepower: 420 at 7,800 rpm

Torque: 317 pound-feet at 4,500 rpm

Curb weight: 3,439 pounds

0-60 mph: 4.2 seconds (est.)

Wheelbase: 104.3 inches

Overall length: 174.4 inches

EPA fuel economy: 13 mpg city, 20 mpg highway

Final thoughts: You can't spell audacious without A-u-d-i

Fish 'n Flush

Since December, the AquaOne Company has sold 1,000 Fish 'n Flush tanks to an odd assortment of customers — despite not having spent a dime on marketing.

Bloggers who focus on home improvement, odd housewares and gadgets have been raving over the 1.6-gallon tank, which includes two aquarium aerators and a filter and retails for $299.

"You love your pet fish, but constantly neglect them…. Instead integrate them into a mandatory part of your life…. Then you can unzip, enjoy and never forget to feed your fish again," wrote Thrillist Nation.

Another happy buyer said, "It's hilarious. If guests ask to use my bathroom, I don't tell them it's there. First I hear them laughing, then they are in there flushing and flushing and watching the water go down, but not the fish,"

The "Eye" of the "Perfect Storm" -- Images of Katrina

Tthere is no artificial coloring on display here -- this amazing but natural coat belongs to Eclyse the Zorse

At the Schloss Holte Stukenbrock Zoo, Eclyse has earned her stripes as one of the zoo's main attractions. For while most zebra-horse crossbreeds sport stripes across their entire body, Eclyse only has two such patches, on its face and rear. The one-year-old zorse was the accidental product of a holiday romance when her mother, Eclipse, was taken from her German safari park home to a ranch in Italy for a brief spell.

There she was able to roam freely with other horses and a number of zebras, including one called Ulysses who took a fancy to her. When Eclipse returned home, she surprised her keepers by giving birth to the baby zorse whose mixed markings betray her colorful parentage. The foal was promptly given a name that is in itself a hybrid, of her parents' names.

Now she's become a major attraction at a safari park at Schloss Holte Stukenbrock, near the German border with Holland, where she has her own enclosure. Udo Richter, spokesman for the park, said, "You can tell she is a mix just by looking at her. But in temperament she can also exhibit characteristics from each parent. "She is usually relatively tame like a horse but occasionally shows the fiery temperament of a zebra, leaping around like one." Horses and zebras are often crossbred in Africa and are used as trekking animals on Mount Kenya.

A Colorful Career On Stage and Off

Milton Berle's career is one of the longest and most varied in show business, spanning silent film, vaudeville, radio, motion pictures, and television. He started in show business at the age of five, appearing as a child in The Perils of Pauline and Tillie's Punctured Romance. Through the 1920s, Berle moved up through the vaudeville circuit, finding his niche in the role of a brash comic known for stealing the material of fellow comedians. He also became a popular master of ceremonies in vaudeville, achieving top billing in the largest cities and theaters. During the 1930s, Berle appeared in a variety of Hollywood films and further polished his comedy routines in night clubs and on radio.

Berle is best known for his role as host of Texaco Star Theater, television's most popular program during its early years. The show had begun on the ABC radio network in the spring of 1948, and Berle took part in a televi-sion test version for Texaco and NBC in June of that year. He was selected as host, and the first East Coast broadcast of the TV series began in Septem-ber. Within two months, Berle became television's first super-star, with the highest ratings ever attained and was soon referred to as "Mr. Televi-sion," "Mr. Tuesday Night," and "Uncle Miltie." Restau-rants, theaters, and nightclubs adjusted their schedules so patrons would not miss Berle's program at 8:00 P.M. on Tuesday nights. Berle is said to have stimu-lated television sales and audience size in the same way Amos 'n' Andy had sparked the growth of radio.

Although the budget for each program was a modest $15,000, many well-known entertainers were eager to appear for the public exposure Texaco Star Theater afforded, providing further viewer appeal and popularity for the program. The one-hour live shows typi-cally included visual vaude-ville routines, music, comedy and sketch-es. Other regular features included the singing Texaco station attendants and the pitchman commercials by Sid Stone. Berle was noted for interj-ecting himself into the acts of his guests, which, along with his opening appear-ance in out-landish costumes, became a regular feature. His use of sight gags, props, and visual style seemed well-suited for the TV medium. In 1951, Berle signed a contract With NBC granting him $200,000 a year for 30 years providing he appear on NBC exclusively.

His was one of the first television shows to be promoted through merchandising, including Unc-le Miltie tee-shirts, comic books and chewing gum. When other programs evolved to compete with Berle's popularity, his domi-nance of the television audience began to wane, and Texaco ended its sponsorship. In the 1953-54 season, the Buick-Berle Show was set into the 8:00 P.M. Tuesday time slot. Facing greater competition and sensing the need for more determined effort to compensate for the dwin-dling novelty of both the program and the medium, Berle's staff and writers changed focus from the zany qualities of the show's early days to a more structured format. Berle continued to attract a substantial audience, but he was dropped by Buick at the end of the season in 1955. Hour long variety shows had become more difficult to orchestrate due to higher costs, in-creasing salary demands, and union complications. Also, Berle's persona had shifted from the impetuous and aggres-sive style of the Texaco Star Theater days to a more cultivated, but less distinc-tive personality, leaving many fans somehow unsatisfied. The next year, a new Milton Berle Show was produced in California for the 1955-56 season, but it failed to capture either the spirit or the audience of Uncle Miltie in his prime. Berle was featu-red on Kraft Music Hall in the late 1950s and Jackpot Bowling, a 1960s game show. In 1965, Berle renego-tiated his 30-year contract with NBC, allowing him to appear on any network. He later made gu-est appearances in dramas as well as comedy programs. In addition to televi-sion, Berle's career in the later years includ-ed film, night clubs, and benefit shows. He has been the subject of nearly every show business tribute and award, including an Emmy and TV specials devoted to his contribu-tions and legacy in broadcasting. (B.R. Smith)

MILTON BERLE. (Mendel Berlinger). Born in New York City, New York, U.S., 12 July 1908. Attended Professional Children's School. Married 1) Joyce Mathews (twice) (divorced, twice); two children; 2) Ruth Gosgrove Rosenthal, 1953; children: Vicki and Billy. Began career by winning contest for Charlie Chaplin imitators, 1913; childrens' roles in Biograph silent film productions; cast member of E.W. Wolf's vaudeville children's acts; in theater since Floradora, Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1920; debuted in New York City with Floradora, 1920; in radio, 1930s; toured with Ziegfeld Follies, 1936; television series and specials from 1948; lyricist of more than 300 songs; contributor to Variety magazine. Honorary H.H.D., McKendree College, Lebanon, Illinois, 1984. Member: ASCAP; American Guild of Authors and Composers; Grand Street Boys; Friar's (re-elected honorary abbot emeritus, 1968; president [Los Angeles] from 1978). Recipient: Yiddish Theatrical Alliance Humanitarian Award, 1951; Look magazine TV Award, 1951; National Academy of Arts and Sciences Award, Man of the Year, 1959; Emmy Award Nominee, 1961; AGVA Golden Award, 1977; Special Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement, 1978/79. (Source: the Museum of Broadcast Communications)

The waves have come and gone

Decades ago, Long Beach was something of a surfing mecca, with wave-pounding beaches where legends like Duke Kahanamoku held the first national surf contest in 1938.

About nine miles of solid rock changed that.

The breakwater, a 50-foot-high wall of rock built by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1940s, stopped the waves. And by creating a protective barrier, the wall allowed the Port of Long Beach and surrounding marinas to expand and thrive.

For generations, surfers and environmentalists have sought to "break the breakwater" and bring waves back to the Long Beach coast.

That's still a distant dream. But the City Council is expected to decide whether to fund a study on reconfiguring the roughly two-mile peninsula area breakwater, which lies at the east end of the city away from the huge port complex.
Waves crashing on the Long Beach coast led to the building of ornate apartment towers and the Pike amusement park, shown in 1925. Some in Long Beach believe removing part of the existing breakwater would restore the city’s appeal to tourists.