My birthday song, my happy world (Part 332).....

 Badass Birthday

On this date, in 1938, in Chicago, E. Gary Gygax was born. 

Now a lot of you may be asking, "WHO????"   But a certain section of the population knows exactliy who he is. 

E. Gary Gygax is credited with, in 1974, creating (with others) and releasing the orignial Dungeons & Dragons game.   He is considered to many the father of D&D.  And everything that came afterwards, games, modules, dice, books, movies, films, maps, magazines, miniatures, cartoons, action figures, cosplayers, LARPing, and lots and lots and lots and lots of other things can be put at his doorstep. 

Well, almost, he passed away in 2008 at the age of 69.

But for all his did for the role playing industry, he's a complete and total badass!

POLT

My birthday song, my happy world (Part 331)....

 Badass Birthday

On this date, in 1909 in Kansas, Vivian Vance was born.

The greatest second banana in TV history, if not ever, Ethel Mertz was played by Vivian Vance.

Her career in film started in 1926.   Her TV career started with I Love Lucy in 1951.  She also had a part in subsequent series with Lucille Ball: The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957-1960); The Lucy Show (1962-1968); and Here's Lucy (1968-1972).  She had numerous other tv show appearances, but she was typecast as Ethel/Lucy's friend.  She also had an extensive career in the theater, starting in 1932 and continuing until just a few years before her death in 1979.

She was nominated for four Emmys, winning one.  She posthumously won 2 TVLand awards and got a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.  As mentioned, she died in 1979 at the age of 70.    

When one has a starring and influential role on the first and greatest TV sitcom that set the trends for future sitcoms, you know you're a badass!

POLT

My birthday song, my happy world (Part 330)......

 Badass Birthday

On this date in 1982 in Los Angeles, Elisabeth Moss was born. 

She's an acclaimed actor, director and producer.  She's recieved two Golden Globes, to Emmys and a Tony nomination.  She's started in Mad Men as Peggy Olsen (who had an amazing story arc), the Handmaid's Tale (which I have yet to watch) and which she also produced. 

However, she's a badass for the first role I saw her in: Zoe Bartlet the president's youngest daughter in "The West Wing".  She stated on the show as just a teenager, and while she didn't have a large part, her reoccurring role was VERY influential and important in the show.  She showed she was a badass even before she could vote. 

POLT

My birthday song, my happy world (Part 329)...

 Badass Birthday

On this date, in 1945, in Kansas City Missouri, Edie McClurg was born. 

Who, you say?  Well she's an actress.  Oh what has she been in, you ask?   Well she's had parts in: 

Carrie

Cheech & Chong's Next Movie

Mr. Mom

Back To School

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

The Little Mermaid

A River Runs Through It

Natural Born Killers

Flubber

Ted

Cars

Wrech It Ralph

Frozen

Zootopia

She's also had parts in many many TV shows, starting the late 70s and going into the 2020's. 

I first saw her, and thought her hilarious, in the equally hilarious WKRP In Cincinnati and the wife of Herb Tarlik, Lucille.

And while all this IS impressive, it does not make her a badass.  What does?  This quote: 

"Oh, he's very popular, Ed.  The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads - they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude." 

Yes, she played Grace, he pulling random pencils from her coif secretary to Ed Rooney in one of the greatest movies ever made: Ferris Bueller's Day Off!

My God, did this woman make me laugh back then.  And that makes her a total badass!

POLT

My birthday song, my happy world (Part 328)....

 Badass Birthdays

On this date, in 1934, in Birmingham Alabama, Louise Fletcher was born. 

Her movie career spanned 1963 to 2020 (57 years).   Her TV career spanned 1958 to 2017 (59 years).  She has recieved an Oscar, a BAFTA, and a Golden Globe among other accolades. 

However, she's a badass for two roles, one in movies and one in television. 

Nurse Ratched in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest"

Kai Winn in "Star Trek Deep Space 9"

Total badass. 

POLT

My birthday song, my happy world (Part 327)....

 Badass Birthdays

On this date, in 1951, in Chicago, Robin Williams was born. 

Robin Williams was a celebrated actor and comedian and extremely gifted improvisational personality.  He did stand up comedy which allowed him to get on the TV sitcom Mork & Mindy in the late 70s.   He made numerous TV appearances over the years, but I think his world wide fame came from the movies he was in. 

Popeye

The World According To Garp

Good Morning, Vietnam

Dead Poets Society

Hook

Alladin

Mrs. Doubtfire

The Birdcage

Good Will Hunting

Patch Adams

Happy Feet

Night At The Museum

 

Among many others!

He has been nominiated for 4 Oscars, winning 1; nominated for 9 Emmys, winning 2; nominated for 12 Golden Globes, winning 6; nominated for 9 Grammys, winning 5; and nominated for 2 BAFTA awards. 

Sadly, he dealt with substance abuse and depression at times in his life, and ending up taking his own life in 2014, at the age of 63.

But really, if you've ever seen Robin Williams in...well, in really anything, you'll see why he is absolutely a badass!

POLT

My birthday song, my happy world (Part 326)....

 Badass Birthday

On this date, in 1964 in Seattle Washington, Chris Cornell was born. 

Chris Cornell was a vocalist, guitarist and lyricist for several bands, and also had a solo career.   His two main bands were Soundgarden and Audioslave, and he was a major force in the grundge sound out of Seattle in the early 90s. 

List of songs:  

With Soundgarden: 

Spoonman

Black Hole Sun

Fell On Black Days

Pretty Noose

Burden In My Hand

Blow Up The Outside World

With Audioslave: 

Cochise

Like A Stone

Show  Me How To Live

Be Yourself

Doesn't Remind Me

Original Fire

Revelations

And among his other works was the theme to the James Bond movie Casino Royale!

He was nominated for 18 Grammys and won 3. 

Sadly, he committed suicide by hanging in 2017 in a Detroit hotel room just an hour after a performance.  He struggled with depression all his life. 

Nonetheless, that's a pretty impressive repetoire, a pertty badass one actually.

POLT

My birthday song, my happy world (Part 325)...

 Badass Birthday

On this date in 1904 in Illinoise, Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith was born. 

He was a 'gentleman farmer' in Virginia until his death.  Nothing particularly badass about that.  But as you probably guessed from his name, he was the last living relative of Abraham Licoln.  His mother was the daughter of Robert Todd Lincoln, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln's first son.  That made him the great-grandson of Abraham Lincoln.  And after his sister's death in 1975, he became the last living relative.

Despite being married three times, he never had any children, though he did have some step-children through his wives.  

But really, being the last person in the world to have blood in your veins from American 16th and greatest president surely is badass, if it's only through your heredity and not your actions. 

He died Christmas Eve 1985 at the age of 81. 

POLT

My birthday song, my happy world (Part 324).....

 Badass Birthday

On this date, one hunder and 5 years ago, in 1921, in Ohio, John Glenn was born. 

John Glenn was a distinguished fighter pilot having served in WWII and the Korean War.  He made the first supersonic transcontential flight.  He was one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts.  He was the third American in space and the first to orbit the Earth.   Following his retirement from NASA he served as a US Sentor from Ohio from 1974 to 1999.  While still in the Senate, in 1998, he went back into space on a Space Shuttle, at the age of 77, also becoming the only person to go into space in both the Mercury program and a Space Shuttle.   He passed away in 2016 at the age of 95. 

A life like that epitomizes Badassitude. 

POLT

My birthday song, my happy world (Part 323)...

 Badass Birthday 

On this date, in 1928 in San Francico, Vince Guaraldi was born. 

What?  Who?  Huh? 

Vince Guarldi was a jazz pianist and composer.  He even won a Grammy Award in 1963 for Best Original Jazz Compisition.     He released 11 albums.  

None of this is what makes him a badass though.  What does? 

He is the person who composed the songs for the Charlie Brown animated specials!  Yep, THIS man is responsible for songs such as "Linus And Lucy" and "Christmas Time Is Here". 

Surely any person responsible for THOSE two classics has earned the title of Badass!

Sadly, he died in 1976 at the too-soon age of 47.

POLT

My birthday song, my happy world (Part 322).......

 Badass Birthday

On this date, one huindred and fifteen years ago, in 1911, in Independence Missiouri, Ginger Rogers was born. 

Ginger Rogers was an actress, singer and dancer during the Golden Age Of Hollywood.    He career spanned radio, stage, screen and television.   She won an Oscar in 1940.

Perhaps she is best known as the dancing partner to Fred Astaire in many films.   And in spite of all that success that she had, I give your the one statement that proves she was a badass: 

Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but she did it backwards.  And in heels. 

She died in 1995 at the age of 84. 

POLT

My birthday song, my happy world (Part 321)....

 Badass Birthday

On this date, in 1913, in Omaha Nebraka, Gerald Ford was born. 

Gerald Ford was a longtime member of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives serving from the state of Michigan, rising to the level of Minority leader.  He became Vice-President after Spiro Agnew resigned, and then when Nixon resigned too, he assumted to Oval Office himself. 

He was a mediocre president.  He did sign the Helsinki Accords and got American troops out of Vietnam, but he DID pardon Nixon within a month of assuming office and did nothing to improve the dire econimic conditions America was suffering under. 

He only served a little under 3 years, from August 1974 until January 1977.  He passed away in December 2006 at the age of 93.

So this being the case, why is a badass?  He's the only President of the United States never to have been elected as either President or Vice-President!    He became President without running for either office.  And while that's not something he pursused, it's more something he just fell into, still, that sounds pretty badass to me!

POLT

My birthday song, my happy world (Part 320).....

 Badass Birthday

On this date, in 1942, in Chicago, Harrison Ford was born.

Surely, one doesn't need to list Harrison Ford's achievements.....but let me do it anyway. 

Oscar nomination, BAFTA nomination, 5 Golden Globe nominations, 6 People's Choice nominations with 3 wins, 2 Emmy nominations

He's appeared in:

American Graffiti

Star Wars franchise

Apocolypse Now

Raiders Of The Lost Ark franchise

Blade Runner

Witness

Working Girl

Partiot Games

The Fugitive

Captain America; Brave New World

Surely this shows just how much of a badass he is!

POLT

My birthday song, my happy world (Part 319)....

 Badass Birthday

On this date, in 1997, in Pakistan, Malala Yousafzai was born. 

You may not know who she is.  Let me tell you some things she's done. 

-Pakistani female eduation activist.

-Producer of films and television about positive female role models and issues.

-The youngest Nobel lauerate in history, having recieved the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 17. 

-Only the second Pakistani to recieve ANY Nobel Prize. 

-Human rights activist for women and children

-Co-Founder of the Malala Fund, a non-profit organization 

-At 11, wrote a blog of the BBC under a pseudonym detailing life under Pakistani Taliban who had taken over the region she lived in. 

-At the age of 15 was the targer of an assassination attempt by the Taliban.  She was shot in the head and hospitalized for quite some time, but she did recover.  And when she had, she resumed the same work she had been doing before. 

These are just some of the things she's accomplished in less than 30 years. 

Surely just what I listed above qualifies for a Badass!

POLT

My birthday song, my happy world (Part 318).....

 Badass Birthday

On this date in 1767, in Massachusetts, John Quincy Adams was born. 

He was the 6th President of the United States from 1825-1829.   He was the son of the 2nd President John Adams.  He was the first president to be photographed (though it was after he left offce, James Polk was the first to be photographed IN office).   He was well known to take morning swims in the Potomac River buck ass naked.  He was born a citizen of Great Britain as the US Revolution was still a decade away. 

Before becoming Presdient he was the 8th Secretart of State, Minister to Great Britain, Prussia and Russia, and a senator from Massachusetts.   Two years after leaving the presidency, he was elected to the US House of Representatves from Massachusetts (the only ex-President to serve in the House) until his death over a decade and a half later.

He had a part in negotiating the Treaty Of Ghent which ending the War Of 1812, and the Adams-Onis treaty in 1819 which transferred Spanish Florida to the US.   He also helped formulate the Monroe Doctrine, which still is used to keep European interference out of the Americas. 

He wasn't a terribly successful president due to Congress being in the other parties hands and refusing to approve his proposals.  And while later serving the House, he was passionate in his advocacy for abolition of slavery, against the expansion of slavery, and for Native American rights.  Unfortunately, the wasn't terribly successful in those things either, due to the makeup of Congress.    He DID successful defend enslaved mutineers on the Armistad before the Supreme Court when he was 73 years old.   Seven years later he died while IN the US House chamber, at his desk, in 1848.

While he's generally ranked as an average/slightly below averge President, he IS considered on the most succesful diplomats and negotiators this country's ever had.

And surely had can be considered a real Badass as well!

POLT

My birthday song, my happy world (Part 317)....

 Badass Birthday

On this date, in 1956 in Califonia, Tom Hanks was born. 

I surely don't have to mention Tom Hanks creditials, everyone should know who he is.  But let me DO mention a few: 

Six Oscar nominations. 

Won two (in successive years) for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. 

Five Golden Globe wins. 

Seven Emmy awards as a director and producer

And that doesn't include all the amazing film and tv shows he's acted in, or directed or produced.

Without needing to say more, I can unequivocally state he IS a badass!

POLT

My birthday song, my happy world (Part 316)....

 Badass Birthday

On this date, in 1831, in George USA, John Stith Pemberton was born. 

Assuredly, you don't know him, but you certainly know OF him. 

He served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and recieved a sabre wound in the Battle of Columbus which bothered him for years.   He had chornic pain and a morphine addiction because of it.  In order for some relief, he experimented with many different combination of toxing and painkillers.  He came up a mixture of alcohol and cocaine and eventually this became....

Coca-Cola.  He invented and perfected it. 

See, I told you you've heard of him. 

He passed away just 2 years after doing so in 1888 at the age of 57. 

But still, inventer of Coke...yep total badass. 

POLT

My birthday song, my happy world (Part 315)......

 Badass Birthday

On this date, 99 years ago in 1927, in Ordgon, Doc Severinson was born. 

Doc Severinson was a world reknown trumpeter.  He was in the NBC Tonight Band from 1949 to 1957.  He returned to it in 1962, and in 1967 became the band leader.  

The band was renamed the NBC Orchestra and became perhaps the best know big band orchestra in the world.  He was band leader all through Johnny Carson's tenure on the Tonight Show.  He filled in for Ed McMahon at time when the latter was on vacation.    He frequently yelled to the band, "In the Key of E" and then whatever they played began belting out a nonsense song.  There was a reoccuring segment where audience members were invited to name a song and see if the band could play it.  It was called, "Stump The Band". 

He stayed with the show until Johnny Carson retired in 1992.  Afterwards, he made guest appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman and on Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show.   He also had a recording career making big band albums. 

In addition to all this, when I was working at Borders between 2000 and 2003, he actually came to our local store for an evening, an evening I was working.  I believe he was hawking a book  and was there signing them and meeting fans.  I did not interact with him personally, but I remember my coworkers who did saying he was very pleasant fellow and a total gentleman. 

But just for having such a long career, he's certainly a badass. 

POLT

My birthday song, my happy world (Part 314)....

 Badass Birthday

On this date, in 1946 in Hell's Kitchen NYC, Sylvester Stallone was born. 

His film career has spanned 5 decades.  He recieved a Golden Globe and well as three Academy Award nominations and two BAFTA nominations.   He's appeared and starred in many different films (including a porno in the mid 70s). 

The Rocky franchise

The Rambo franchise

Tango & Cash

Oscar

Cliffhanger

Demolition Man

The Expendibles franchise

Guardians Of The Galaxy

I am peronsally not a fan of his acting or his politics, but with everything he's done, it can't be denied he's a badass. 

POLT

My birthday song, my happy world (Part 313)....

 Badass Birthday

On this date, in 1872, 154 years ago, in Vermont, Calvin Coolidge was born. 

Coolidge was president from 1923 to 1929.  He oversaw the economic boom built like a house of cards that led to the Great Depression.  He was a notoriously tactiturn man.  When a visitor said she bet a friend she could get him to say more than three words in the evening to her, he replied, "You lose." and didn't speak to her again that night.   He had a very 'hands off' approach to governemnt, unless it came to unions, when, as governor of Massachusetts, he broke a police strike.   He was famous for napping in the afternoon.  He said little and did little.   Not anything too noteworthy.   His wife Grace however was vivacious and outgoing and a trendsetter of fashion.  

So why is he here you ask?  Well, he's the only US President to be born on the 4th of July!   That's a badass birthday to have for the job he had.   Kinda like Santa's birthday being Dec 25th. 

POLT