Irena Sendler – Woman of Worth

Irena Sendler was a social worker who resisted the Nazi occupation of Poland.

She first worked independently with Matylda Getter, and later joined the Zegota.  They smuggled infants and toddlers from the Warsaw Ghetto and gave them new identities and new families.  She carried out the children in toolboxes, potato sacks and body bags.  She wrote their real names in code and put the information in jars which she buried in her neighbor’s yard.

In 1943, they arrested her and, during her interrogation, they broke her legs and arms.  The Zegota bribed the guards with a bag of money to spare her life and she was left unconscious by the side of the road.

Sendler later uncovered the jars and tried to reunite the children with their families.  There were few survivors.

In 1965, Yad Vashem recognized Irena Sendler as Righteous Among the Nations.

In 2003, Poland awarded Sendler its highest distinction, the Order of White Eagle.

She was also nominated for awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.  However, she was not given that honor.  She died in 2008.

She saved 2,500 lives.

• Yad Vashem – link
• International Federation of Social Workers – Nobel Peace Prize nomination
• Irena Sendler Project – site
• Holocaust Forgotten – children create play
• Auschwitz.dk – short bio
• The Guardian – insists she is not a hero
• History’s Hero’s – link
• Snopes.com – link (this is where I started)

Film Actors who Died in 2010

Art Linkletter (1912 — 2010)  Radio and TV personality. Kids Say the Darndest Things

Kevin McCarthy (1914-2010) Actor. Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Lena Horne (1917-2010) Actress, Singer.  Stormy Weather.

Tony Curtis (1925-2010)  Actor.   Some Like It Hot, Houdini, Defiant Ones, The Vikings, Spartacus, Operation Petticoat, The Great Imposter.

Dorothy De Borba (1925-2010) Child actress. Dorothy in  Our Gang.

Peter Graves (1926-2010) Actor.  TV’s Mission Impossible, Fantasy Island, 7th Heaven. Films Airplane! and Clonus Horror

Lionel Jeffries (1926-2010) Actor.  Camelot; Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Leslie Nielsen (1926-2010) Actor.  Forbidden Planet; Airplane!; The Naked Gun

Tom Bosley (1927-2010)  Actor.  Happy Days; Father Dowling Mysteries

Eddie Fisher (1928-2010) Singer. Appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show, Dean Martin Comedy Hour, Andy Williams Show. Father of Carrie Fisher.

Ilene Woods (1929 – 2010) Singer, actress. Voiced Disney’s Cinderella.

Jean Simmons (1929-2010) Actress. Elmer Gantry, Hamlet (1948), Désirée, Guys and Dolls, The Big Country.  Voiced Grandma/Old Sophie  in Howl’s Moving Castle.

Robert Culp (1930-2010) Actor. I, Spy, Greatest American Hero, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

Zelda Rubinstein (1933-2010)  Actress.  Poltergeist and sequels.

Cammie King (1934-2010) Actress.  Gone With the Wind. Voiced Faline in Disney’s Bambi.

Rue McClanahan (1934-2010) Actress.  Golden Girls.

Corey Allen (1934-2010) Actor, Director.  Star Trek franchise, Dallas

Dennis Hopper (1936-2010) Actor.  Easy Rider, True Romance, Speed,  TV Crash, TV 24, Rebel Without a Cause

James MacArthur (1937-2010)  Actor.  Swiss Family Robinson, Hawaii Five-0 (1968), The Young Stranger

Michael Pataki (1938-2010) Actor.  Happy Days, 1980s Mighty Mouse, 1970s Amazing Spider-Man, Ren & Stimpy

Pat Stevens (1945-2010) Actress.  Voice of Velma in 1970s Scooby-Doo and TV M*A*S*H.

Michelle Nicastro (1960 –  2010)  Singer, Actress.   Voice of Odette in the Swan Princess and sequels.  Ariadne in Merlin, Eponine  in Les Miserables

Shannon Tavarez (1999 – 2010) Actress.  Young Nala on Broadway

Related Articles

• The ones we lost in 2010 (kathybrakhage.blogspot.com)

Sinister Board Games

Cracked.com had an article on classic board games with sinister origins.  Must-read.

3 fun facts:

#1 People were playing the Game of Life before the Civil War began.

#2 Snakes and Ladders  taught religious virtue to Hindu children.

#3 Hasbro needs to reissue Clue/Cluedo with the bomb and the shillelagh (and a flame-thrower for good measure).

Writers who died in 2010

Martin Gardner (1914 – 2010) Mathematician, Science Writer.  His annotation of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass is highly entertaining.

Ruth Park (1917-2010) Author.  Playing Beatie Bow is an excellent time travel story.

J. D. Salinger (1919-2010) Author. Catcher in the Rye

Sid Fleischman (1920-2010) Author. The Whipping Boy. Newbery medal.

Patricia Wrightson (1921-2010) Author (fantasy). The Dark Bright Water. Hans Christian Anderson medal.

Donald H. Tuck (1922-2010) Bibliographer.  Hugo medal. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy

Eva Ibbotson (1925-2010) Author (fantasy).  Which Witch? and The Secret of Platform 13

Sharon Webb (1936 – 2010)  Author (fantasy). Earth Song trilogy

Erich Segal (1937 – 2010) Author and Academician. Love Story

Harvey Pekar (1939-2010) Comics writer. American Splendor and Our Cancer Year.

Stephen Joseph Cannell (1941 – 2010)  Mystery writer and TV show creator.  Appeared most recently in the TV show Castle.

Takeshi Shudo (1949-2010) Main writer for Pokemon.

John Steakley (1951-2010) Author (sci-fi and horror).  Armor and Vampire$ (much, much, much better than the film by John Carpenter).

Stephen Perry (1954 – 2010)  Scriptwriter. Thundercats cartoon and comics.

Jennifer Rardin (1965-2010) Author (paranormal fiction). Jaz Parks series.

Obituaries

Martin Gardiner – Telegraph; Scientific American

Ruth Park – Guardian

J. D. Salinger – NYTimes

Sid Fleischman – Washington Post; NYTimes

Patricia Wrightson – Times

Donald H. Tuck -  Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

Eva Ibbotson -  Independent; Telegraph

Sharon Webb – Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

Erich Segal – Washington Post;  Guardian

Harvey Pekar – Blog.Cleveland; Newsweek

Stephen Joseph Cannell – NYTimes

Takeshi Shudo - Suite 101

John Steakley –   Dallas News

Stephen Perry – Tampa Bay Online

Jennifer Rardin – Guardian

The Secret of Platform 13

Jane Austen Movies

Image via Wikipedia

Arrgh!  I let the Twilight post stand for far too long.  So, projects…

I’m slogging through the rest of the sci-fi movie project.  It went on too long and I lost interest.  Now I’m planning a shorter project more carefully. Next up is Jane Austen Luxe.  The plan is to analyze the costumes in the movies and others of a similar era.  Very girly project.

Thus far, I have several older books on historical clothes and a book about Jane Austen movies.  I was looking through a Dover catalog and thinking I ought to buy the Pride & Prejudice paper dolls for ‘research purposes.’  Maybe I can talk myself into buying the Pride & Prejudice board game too.

If you have any other research activities or sites or items to recommend, let me know.

Related Articles

• Happy Birthday, Jane Austen! (fillingspaces.wordpress.com)
• Jane Austen Challenge (debrakb.blogspot.com)
• Book 26: Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sandition – Jane Austen (geoffwhaley.wordpress.com)
• Jane Austen 2.0 (online.wsj.com)

Filmmakers Who Died in 2010

There are other filmmakers who died this past year.  But these people made cinema that means something to me.  Listed by year of birth.

Bill Littlejohn (1914 –2010) Animator.  Peanuts and Garfield specials.

Roy Ward Baker (1916-2010) Director. Don’t Bother to Knock (1952), A Night to Remember (1958), Quatermass and the Pit (1967)

Dino De Laurentiis (1919-2010) Producer. Barbarella (1968), Flash Gordon (1980), and Conan the Barbarian (1982).

Alexander Anderson (1920-2010) Co-creator of the Rocky and Bullwinkle characters.

Douglas Argent (1921-2010) TV Producer and Director.  Many shows, Fawlty Towers among them.

Art Clokey (1921-2010)  Stop-motion animator.  Created Gumby.

Blake Edwards (1922-2010)  Director.  Operation Petticoat (1959), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Pink Panther (1963), A Shot in the Dark (1964)

Arthur Penn (1922-2010) Director. Miracle Worker (1962), Bonnie & Clyde (1967), Little Big Man (1970).

Dede Allen (1923-2010)  Film editor.  The Hustler (1961), Bonnie & Clyde (1967), Serpico (1973), The Breakfast Club (1985).

Irvin Kershner (1923-2010) Director. The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Never Say Never Again (1983).

Yoshinobu Nishizaki (1934-2010) Creator of the Space Battleship Yamato series.

John Jeffries, Sr. (1936-2010) Production and Set Designer.  The original Star Trek, JAG, Matlock.

Carl Macek (1951-2010)  Producer of English dubbed anime. First English dub of Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbor Totoro.

Sally Menke (1953-2010) Film editor.  Collaborated with Quentin Tarantino on all his films.

Corey Haim (1971-2010) Actor.  Lucas (1986), Lost Boys (1987),  License to Drive (1988).

Artists and Comics-Makers Who Died in 2010

Listed by their birth dates.

Robert McCall (1919– 2010)  Known for space-related art.  Worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey; and painted for NASA, EPCOT, The Pentagon.

Peter O’Donnell (1920 – 2010) Wrote the adventure comic Modesty Blaise; and wrote Gothic novels under the name Madeleine Brent.

Howard ‘Howie’ Post (1926-2010) Artist.  Harvey comics.

Mike Esposito (1927-2010) Artist.  Co-designed 2006 Wonder Woman stamp.  Classic Spider-Man and Archie comics.

Frank Frazetta (1928-2010) Influential fantasy artist.

John D’Agostino Sr. (1929-2010) Artist.  Archie comics.

Joe Messerli (1930 – 2010)  Designed the logo for The Twilight Zone;  animated for Hana Barbara.

Al Williamson (1931 -2010) Artist.  Flash Gordon, Secret Agent X-9

Dick Giordano (1932 – 2010)  Artist and DC editor.

John Schoenherr (1935-2010)  Won the Caldecott Medal for Owl Moon written by Jane Yolen.

Harvey Pekar (1939-2010) wrote the autobiographical comics American Splendor and Our Cancer Year.  American Splendor was made into a film starring Paul Giamatti in 2003.

John Hicklenton (1967-2010) Artist. Judge Dredd

Obituaries

John D’Agostino Sr. – USA Today

Mike Esposito – Newsday

Frank Frazetta – The Guardian.  An interview from The Comics Journal.

Dick Giordano -  New York Times.  Newsarama

John Hicklenton – The Comics Reporter

Robert McCall – Space.com

Joe Messerli – Lambiek

Peter O’Donnell – The Guardian

Harvey Pekar – New York Times

Howie Post – North Jersey.com

John Schoenherr -  New York Times. His son’s post.

Al Williamson – The Comics Reporter.  The Guardian.

People of Note Who Died in 2010

Image via Wikipedia

Everett Bleiler (1920 – 2010)  Editor, Bibliographer, worked at Dover

Knox Burger (1922– 2010).  Literary agent. Published Kurt Vonnegut‘s first short story.  Clients included Donald Westlake, Ray Bradbury, Jack Finney, John Steinbeck and Louis L’Amour.

Howard Zinn (1922-2010) Historian. Peoples History of the United States (1980)

Benoît Mandelbrot (1924-2010), Mathematician.  Made a study of fractals (and coined the term).

Dorothy “Dottie” Kamenshek (1925 – 2010)  Baseball athlete.  Her career inspired the movie, A League of their Own.

Joan Sutherland (1926-2010) Coloratura soprano.  Known as La Stupenda. Best known for her role of  Lucia.  She was a vital part of the 20th century bel canto revival.

Jaime Escalante (1930-2010) High school math teacher.  The movie Stand and Deliver (1987) is based on his inspirational work with students.  There is also an entertaining book, Escalante: The Best Teacher in America by Jay Mathews about his work.

Obituaries

Everett. F. Bleiler – Locus Magazine

Knox Burger – New York Times

Howard Zinn – The Guardian

Benoît Mandelbrot – New Scientist

Dottie Kamenshek - Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Joan Sutherland – New York Times

Jaime Escalante – Washington Post

In Memoriam: People Lost in 2009

David Carradine – (1936-2009). Acting credits include Kill Bill and Kung Fu.

Philip José Farmer – (1918-2009). Bibliography includes To Your Scattered Bodies Go and Tarzan Alive. “The universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest.”

Paul Harvey – (1918-2009).  Radio commenter.  “And now you know the rest of the story.”

Jane Aiken Hodge - (1971-2009). Bibliography includes Double Life of Jane Austen and Marry in Haste.

John Hughes - (1950-2009). Film credits include Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Natasha Richardson – (1963-2009). Film credits include Nell and Widow’s Peak.

Koko Taylor - (1935-2009). Blues singer.  Songs include – “Big Boss Man” and “Wang Dang Doodle.”

Donald Westlake – (1933-2008). (he died on New Year’s Eve of 2009, so I am including him.) Bibliography includes The Hunter and The Hot Rock.  “Everybody in New York is looking for something. Once in a while, somebody finds it.”

Andrew Wyeth – (1917-2009).  Painter of the Helga series and Christina’s World.

Image by freeparking via Flickr

The final days of Edgar Allan Poe

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Here’s an interesting theory as to Poe’s final days.  It is depressing but fascinating.