Donster

No it's not over. Morning. 15F with 1F wind chill. High of 28F with partly cloudy skies. At least it's not going to snow today.

Air Transportation Association Ad - February 1943 1940: Norway protests to Britain over violation of neutrality. 1942: German vessel disguised as a British merchantman is reported sunk by a U-boat off Azores. 1942: Japanese invade Bali, despite allied naval interception and bomb Darwin on Northern Australia. *Cobina Wright Jr. 1943: The Eighth Army occupies Medenine in southern Tunisia. 5th Panzerarmee's advance beyond the Kasserine Pass is temporarily suspended. 1944: German troops encircled in the Cherkassy pocket achieve a breakout, but at a heavy cost in men and equipment. The Russians claim the annihilation of the trapped German divisions at Korsun. They also begin to storm Krivoi Rog. Cobina Wright Jr. 1944: U.S forces land on Eniwetok atoll in the South Pacific. 1944: Operation Hailstone begins as U.S. carrier-based planes bomb the Japanese naval base at Truk in the Caroline Islands. Cobina Wright Jr. 1945: The U.S. Third Army launches a new offensive into Germany, having pierced the Siegfried Line on a 11-mile front. 1945: U.S. troops capture the whole of the Bataan Peninsula, which commands Manila Bay in Philippines. 1945: Gen. MacArthur's troops land on Corregidor in the Philippines. Cobina Wright Jr. *Cobina Wright was born Aug 14, 1921 in New York City, New York. The brunette daughter of ambitious society columnist Cobina Wright Sr. and started her show business career as a model. Bob Hope used her as the basis for character Cobina on his radio program in 1939. After she filed suit against him (settled out of court) she became a guest on his program. She began a radio career and appeared in about a dozen movies during the early 40s. Her husband, Palmer Beaudette, was an Army corporal at the time they married in 1941. He butted heads with Cobina's assertive mother about the direction of his wife's/her daughter's career. Cobina Jr. retired in 1943. Husband Palmer was an heir to a vast fortune. When he died in 1968 of a heart attack, Cobina Jr. found that their spacious Carmel Valley home was all she owned. It seems that the share of Palmer's estate, which he inherited from his father, reverted, as per his father's will, back to Palmer's brothers and sisters. Both Cobina and her late husband were alcoholics. Following his death and her own recovery, she devoted much of her time to volunteering in programs at Beacon House. She also served on the board of the National Council on Alcoholism.

Sad news. Rest in Peace. Really loved "My Sharona" and "Good Girls Don't". Top notch tunes and top notch band.

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One night, Whizkid comes stumbling into a bar and says to the bartender: "Drinks for all on me including you, bartender." So the bartender follows Whizkid's orders and says: "That will be $36.50 please." Whizkid says he has no money so the bartender slaps him around and throws him out. The next night Whizkid comes in again and orders a drink for everyone in the bar including the bartender. Again the bartender follows instructions and again Whizkid says he has no money. So the bartender slaps him around and throws him out. On the third night he comes in, Whizkid orders drinks for all except the bartender. "What, no drink for me?" replies the bartender. Whizkid answers "Oh, no. You get violent when you drink."

Morning. 21F with a high of 27F. Presently cloudy, but clearing and sunny most of the day. Cedar Rapids has had 33.5 inches of snow so far this season. We have officially set a new record now with 70 consecutive days with at least 4 inches of snow cover. The old record was set in the 1961-1962 winter season.

Roblee Shoes Ad - February 1942 1940: The British destroyer Cossack, enters a Norwegian fjord, captures the German freighter Altmark, former supply ship of the Graf Spee and frees 300 British merchant seamen who were captured from vessels sunk by the Graf Spee in the South Atlantic. 1942: Dönitz orders all available U-boats in the Atlantic to attack British and American shipping off the US eastern seaboard. German U-boats, with their deck guns, bombard oil storage facilities and refineries on the Dutch islands of Aruba and Curacao in the southern Caribbean. *Yvonne DeCarlo 1942: The Australian Prime Minister Curtin, calls the surrender of Singapore ‘Australia’s Dunkirk’. 1942: Tojo outlines Japan’s war aims to the Diet, referring to "new order of coexistence" in East Asia. Yvonne DeCarlo 1943: Dr. Mildred Harnack-Fish, a member of the German resistance sentenced to death by the German government, is beheaded at Berlin's Plotzensee Prison. 1943: Norwegian SOE Commandos are parachuted into the mountains 40 miles north of the the German ‘heavy water’ plant at Telemark. They met up with the reconnaissance party, that had arrived the previous October. Yvonne DeCarlo 1943: The Russians take Kharkov and Voroshilovo after nine days of heavy street fighting. 1944: The British Air Minister says that bomber losses for 1943 were, 2,369 U.K. and 997 U.S. planes down. Yvonne DeCarlo 1944: Kesselring launches seven divisions in a second major attack against the US 5th Army's bridgehead at Anzio. 1944: The U.S. Navy pounds the Japanese base at Truk in the Caroline's. Yvonne DeCarlo 1945: The remaining Korps of the 11th SS Army begin their attacks in support of 'Operation Sonnenwende'. 1945: U.S. forces begin the intensive bombardment of Iwo Jima, 600 miles South of Japan. Yvonne DeCarlo 1945: A USN Task Force reports pounding targets around Tokyo. 1945: U.S. paratroops land on Corregidor Island, a Japanese stronghold in Manila Bay. Yvonne DeCarlo *Yvonne De Carlo was born Peggy Yvonne Middleton on September 1, 1922, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (while some sources have her first name as Margaret, most agree it is Peggy). She was three when her father abandoned the family. Her mother turned to waitressing in a restaurant to make ends meet--a rough beginning for an actress who would, one day, be one of Hollywood's elite. Yvonne's mother wanted her to be in the entertainment field and enrolled her in a local dance school and also saw that she studied dramatics. Yvonne was not shy in the least. She was somewhat akin to Colleen Moore who, like herself, entertained the neighborhood with impromptu productions. In 1937, when Yvonne was 15, her mother took her to Hollywood to try for fame and fortune, but nothing came of it and they returned to Canada. They came back to Hollywood in 1940, where Yvonne would dance in chorus lines at night while she checked in at the studios by day in search of film work. After appearing in unbilled parts in three short films, she finally got a part in a feature. Although the film, Harvard, Here I Come! (1941), was quite lame, Yvonne shone in her brief appearance as a bathing beauty. In December 1941, the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor signaled America's entrance into World War II. During this period she engaged in morale boosting performances for U.S. servicemen. De Carlo was a favorite leading lady in the 1940s, and a recipient of many letters from GI's. The rest of 1942 and 1943 saw her in more uncredited roles in films that didn't quite set Hollywood on fire. In The Deerslayer (1943) she played Wah-Tah. The role didn't amount to much, but it was much better than the ones she had been handed previously. The next year was about the same as the previous two years. She played small parts as either secretaries, someone's girlfriend, native girls or office clerks. Most aspiring young actresses would have given up and gone home in defeat, but not Yvonne. She trudged on. The next year started out the same, with mostly bit parts, but later that year she landed the title role in Salome Where She Danced (1945) for Universal Pictures. While critics were less than thrilled with the film, it was at long last her big break, and the film was a success for Universal. Now she was rolling. Her next film was the western comedy Frontier Gal (1945) as Lorena Dumont. After a year off the screen in 1946, she returned in 1947 as Cara de Talavera in Song of Scheherazade (1947), and many agreed that the only thing worth watching in the film was Yvonne. Her next film was the highly regarded Burt Lancaster prison film Brute Force (1947). Time after time, Yvonne continued to pick up leading roles, in such pictures as Slave Girl (1947), Black Bart (1948), Casbah (1948) and River Lady (1948). She had a meaty role in Criss Cross (1949), a gangster movie, as the ex-wife of a hoodlum. At the start of the 1950s Yvonne enjoyed continued success in lead roles. Her talents were again showcased in movies such as The Desert Hawk (1950), Silver City (1951) and Scarlet Angel (1952). Her last film in 1952 was Hurricane Smith (1952), a picture most fans and critics agree is best forgotten. In 1956 she appeared in the film that would immortalize her best, The Ten Commandments (1956). She played Sephora, the wife of Moses (Charlton Heston). The film was, unquestionably, a super smash, and is still shown on television today. Her performance served as a springboard to another fine role, this time as Amantha Starr in Band of Angels (1957). In the late 1950s and early 1960s Yvonne appeared on such TV programs as "Bonanza" (1959) and "The Virginian" (1962). However, with film roles drying up, she took what turned out to be the role for which she will be best remembered--that of Lily Munster in the smash series "The Munsters" (1964). She still wasn't completely through with the big screen, however. Appearances in such films as McLintock! (1963), The Power (1968), The Seven Minutes (1971) and La casa de las sombras (1976) kept her before the eyes of the moviegoing public. On January 8, 2007, Miss De Carlo died at the age of 84.

But actually there is a new recall...Toyota Recalling 8,000 Tacoma Pickup Trucks Over Propeller Shaft

Morning. Dusting of snow. An inch or two of new snow possible today with winds up to 20mph. 18F with a high temp of 24F.

Pepperell Fabrics Ad - February 1942 1940: Hitler orders that all British merchant ships will be considered warships. 1941: Great Britain breaks off diplomatic relations with Romania as it is now clear that the Romanians are firmly allied to the Germans. *Brenda Joyce 1942: Churchill broadcasts to the nation and says the Mediterranean will close to all allied shipping. 1942: Singapore surrenders to the Japanese, a decision prompted as much as anything by the plight of the 1,000,000 civilian inhabitants of the island. 9,000 British, Australian and Empire troops are killed and 130,000 captured, many of which will find themselves working as slaves on the notorious Burma-Thai Railway. The Japanese casualties amount to around 9,000 killed or wounded. Brenda Joyce 1943: The Germans break the American Army's lines at the Fanid-Sened Sector in Tunisia, North Africa. 1944: The heaviest raid ever on Berlin is conducted, during which 2,500 tons of bombs are dropped. 1944: Monte Cassino is devastated by 422 tons of bombs as the Indian and New Zealanders begin their offensive to capture the monastery which is now occupied and defended by paratroopers (the Green Devils) of 1st Fallschirmjäger Division. Brenda Joyce 1944: Hitler permits Field Marshal Models troops to withdraw to Panther Line and also allows the Korsun pocket defenders to break out towards the relieving forces. 1944: The USAAF decimate a Japanese convoy off New Ireland. Brenda Joyce 1945: Russian troops are now covering the approaches to Danzig. The Red Army captures Sagan in Silesia. The German 11th SS Army begins a counterattack 'Operation Sonnenwende' with three Korps (39th Panzer, 3rd SS Panzer and the 10th SS Korps). However, only the 3rd SS Panzer Korps (11th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Nordland" and the 27th SS Grenadier Division "Langemarck") are ready and begin their attack South towards Arnswalde, about 30-35 kms southeast of Stargard. 1945: Japanese forces are now trapped in the Manila rectangle, which is just 5,000yds by 2,000yds. Brenda Joyce and Johnny Weissmuller *The second "Jane" of the durable Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan jungle film series was born Betty Leabo on February 25th 1917, in Excelsior Springs, Missouri, raised in Los Angeles, and nicknamed "Graftina" by her father when she was a girl. Attending college, the lovely blonde became a photographer's model to help pay her tuition. 20th Century Fox noticed a fashion layout of her and immediately signed her on. The studio changed her name to Brenda Joyce after silent star Alice Joyce, making her movie debut with The Rains Came (1939). Building her up to the public as a sexy single girl, the studio didn't take kindly to her impulsive marriage to army husband Owen Ward and supposedly punished her by relegating her to "B" films. Two children later, Brenda appeared to have lost interest in her career, but was coaxed back to the film set when brunette Maureen O'Sullivan left the Tarzan series and Johnny Weissmuller approved the athletic beauty as his new blonde swinging mate. Beginning a four-year excursion with the film Tarzan and the Amazons (1945), Brenda continued on as Jane after Weissmuller left (actor Lex Barker took over), but finally decided enough was enough. Besieged by personal problems, including a painful divorce, Brenda left after her fifth movie, Tarzan's Magic Fountain (1949). She worked for a decade in Washington for the Department of Immigration and appeared in two episodes of PBS kids show "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" in 1971. Brenda Joyce died on the 4th of July, 2009 of pneumonia at a nursing home in Santa Monica, California.

United States Steel Ad - February 1943 1939: Germany launches the battleship Bismarck. 1940: Britain announces that all merchant ships will be armed. *Evelyn Ankers - YANK Pinup Girl 1941: Hitler starts to apply pressure on Yugoslavia to join the Tripartite pact. 1941: Kurmuk near the Ethiopian border in Sudan is recaptured by British forces. Leading elements of the German 5th Light Division arrive at Tripoli and are immediately moved up to Sirte to take up defensive positions. 1941: Western Africa front: South African forces conquer Kismayu in the Italian Somalia. Evelyn Ankers 1942: Bomber Command is issued with Directive No.22, which ends the recent period of aircraft conservation by the RAF, although attacks are still not to be pressed in the face of bad weather or 'extreme hazard'. The reason for this change is that the new Lancaster bomber, was just entering service and that Bomber Command was now equipped with a new navigation device called GEE, which it was hoped would make locating targets easier. However, it only had a range of 400 miles and could be jammed. 1942: The Russians introduce universal labour conscription. 1942: The Japanese being their invasion of Sumatra with airborne landings at Palembang. Evelyn Ankers 1943: The 5th Panzerarmee under von Arnim, forces the retreat of the US 2nd Corps, inflicting very heavy losses in the battle of the Kasserine Pass. 1943: Dakotas of No. 31 Sqn and Hudsons of No. 194 Sqn begin air supply missions to Chindit forces working behind enemy lines in Burma. Chindits were small pockets of highly trained British troops, usually with local guides, who operated behind enemy lines, cutting enemy lines of communication. The name was taken from that of a mythical Burmese God. 1943: The VMF-124 Corsairs joing other fighters escorting Liberators on a raid to Kahili, Bougainville. They meet 50 enemy aircraft and only 3 Zeros are shot down while 10 US aircraft are lost; 4 P-38s, 2 P-40s, 2 Liberators and 2 of the Corsairs. This engagement becomes known as the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre", an inauspicious debut for the Corsair. Evelyn Ankers 1944: Eisenhower sets up the SHAEF HQ in Britain. 1944: The Americans announce that the Japanese remaining in Solomon's are now trapped. Evelyn Ankers 1945: Uruguay declares war against Germany. 1945: Day two of the allied bombing of Dresden. 1945: Canadian and British troops reach the Rhine, 40 miles Northwest of Duisberg. Evelyn Ankers 1945: The 1st Ukrainian Front encircles Breslau which has been declared a fortress under the command of Gauleiter Hanke. 1945: The siege of Budapest ends as the Soviets take the city. Only 785 German and Hungarian soldiers managed to escape. 1945: The British Indian 4th Corps begins to cross Irrawaddy and strike into the Japanese rear. The first use of napalm is made in Burma. Evelyn Ankers *Evelyn Ankers, a beautiful movie actress who was a staple of Universal's horror films in the 1940s, was born in Chile to English parents on August 17th, 1918. Her parents repatriated the family back to England in the 1920s, and it was in Old Blighty that Ankers developed a desire to become an actress. She began appearing in small roles in English movies in the mid 1930s while she was still in school. She appeared in "Fire Over England" (1937) with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh and in "Bells of St. Mary's" (1937). A beauty with talent, she soon won starring roles in the low-budget "The Villiers Diamond" (1938) and "The Claydon Treasure Mystery" (1938). With war clouds darkening the skies over Europe, Ankers emigrated to the United States and was signed to a contract by Universal in 1940. She made her Universal debut in the Abbot and Costello comedy-horror picture "Hold That Ghost" (1941) before appearing in the horror film classic "The Wolf Man" (1941) opposite Lon Chaney, Jr. Ankers found herself cast into the horror picture ghetto, appearing in two more Chaney fright films, "The Ghost of Frankenstein" (1942) and "The Frozen Ghost" (1945) during a period in which she was cast ashore with a sarong-less Jon Hall in "The Invisible Man's Revenge" (1944). She also appeared in support of Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes in "The Voice of Terror" (1942) and "The Pearl of Death" (1944). Ankers married B-movie hunk Richard Denning in 1942 and made a go articulating the anxieties of the home front while her husband was off to war. Horror flicks were popular during World War II, but after the cessation of hostilities in 1945, they went out of favor with audiences. Ankers' career, mated to the genre at Universal, suffered. She quit Universal in 1945 and freelanced at Columbia and Poverty Row's Producers Releasing Corporation (PRC) and Republic Pictures in dramas and mysteries. Evelyn co-starred with her returned husband Richard in the major release "Black Beauty" (1946) for 20th Century Fox. For PRC, she headlined "Queen of Burlesque" (1946) and later co-starred with Lex Barker in "Tarzan's Magic Fountain" (1949). As the 1950s dawned, a decade of conformity and family values, Ankers quit the movies for married life and motherhood after making "The Texan Meets Calamity Jane" (1950), in which she was first-billed. She was 32 years old. A decade later, Ankers came out of retirement to make one final screen appearance, in her hubby's "No Greater Love" (1960). Evelyn Ankers died of ovarian cancer on August 29, 1985 in Haiku, Maui, Hawaii, twelve days after her 67th birthday. Trivia: She was called "Queen of the Screamers" on account of her blood-curdling vocal outbursts in "B" suspense thrillers of the '40s. Evelyn stood 5 feet, 8 inches tall. Ankers was engaged to actor Glenn Ford, but Ankers broke the engagement when she met Richard Denning while Ford was on location. Evelyn's husband, Richard Denning, had a recurring role on Hawaii Five-O as the governor of Hawaii from 1968-80. Sadly, Evelyn never put in appearance as the First Lady of the Aloha State even though she'd been offered the role. She was quite contented with retirement. Buried at Maui Veterans Cemetery, Makawao, Hawaii next to her husband Richard Denning, who served in the US Navy during WWII and served on a submarine as Yeoman 1st Class in the South Pacific.

Light snow. 16F with a high of 22F. Oh and Happy Valentine's Day to your wives and or girlfriends. I still think there should be a Steak & Blowjob Day for us men. I see Danica crashed yesterday. See I told you she should have been in bed with me. Much safer.

Lottie who?

Holy Crap! She must have a bigger penis than John Holmes!

There is no such thing as "real cars" in the terms of the way stock cars used to be. And it will only get worse, as the newer models on the showroom floors get smaller and smaller. Danica doesn't belong in NASCAR. She belongs beside me in my bed!

Tell 'em to order pizza in the shape of a heart for delivery and warm up the TV.

Shuttle Silhouette

Morning. Frozen fog covering the trees and all. 15F with clouds and a high of 20F. Snow flurries later in the the day. Stans, I do hope you mean clock and not cock.

Camel Cigarette Ad - February 1943 1940: Russian troops capture forts on Karelia Isthmus. 1942: In the early hours of the morning, the Scharnhorst puts into Wilhelmshaven, while the Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen reach Kiel a short while later. Jean Arthur 1942: Vidkun Quisling visits Berlin. 1942: The Russians advance in to White Russia, but meet strong German resistance. Jean Arthur 1944: The allies halt the German attack around Cassino. The Italians in Cassino Monastery are warned that it will be bombed. 1944: Another British counter-offensive begins in Arakan, Burma. Jean Arthur 1945: (Feb. 13th - 15th) The RAF launches a heavy attack (over 800 bombers in two separate waves, which is followed the next day by 400 bombers of the US 8th Air Force) against Dresden. The Raids are estimated to have killed in a fire-bombing holocaust, 35,000 to 135,000 people and becomes the most destructive raid of the war in Europe. Jean Arthur 1945: Budapest is reported as fully captured by the Russians. The Red Army captures Schneidemül in Pomerania. 1945: U.S. troops capture the last Japanese naval base and airfield on Luzon. Jean Arthur *Jean Arthur was born Gladys Georgianna Greene in Plattsburgh, New York on October 17, 1900. A major film star of the 1930s and 1940s, she remains arguably the epitome of the female screwball comedy actress. "No one was more closely identified with the screwball comedy than Jean Arthur. So much was she part of it, so much was her star personality defined by it, that the screwball style itself seems almost unimaginable without her." Arthur has been called "the quintessential comedic leading lady." Arthur is best known for her feature roles in three Frank Capra films: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can't Take It With You (1938), and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), films that championed the everyday heroine. She continued to star in films such as Howard Hawks' Only Angels Have Wings in 1939, with love interest Cary Grant, 1942's The Talk of the Town, directed by George Stevens (also with Grant), and again for Stevens as a government clerk in 1943's The More the Merrier, for which Jean Arthur was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress (losing to Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette). As a result of being in the doghouse with studio boss Harry Cohn, her fee for The Talk of the Town (1942) was only $50,000 while her male co-stars Grant and Ronald Colman received upwards of $100,000 each. Arthur remained Columbia's top star until the mid-1940s, when she left the studio and Rita Hayworth took over as the studio's reigning queen. Stevens famously called her "one of the greatest comediennes the screen has ever seen", while Capra credited her as "my favorite actress". Arthur "retired" when her contract with Columbia Pictures expired in 1944. She reportedly ran through the studio's streets, shouting "I'm free, I'm free!" For the next several years, she turned down virtually all film offers, the two exceptions being Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair (1948), in which she played a congresswoman and rival of Marlene Dietrich, and as a homesteader's wife in the classic Western Shane (1953), which turned out to be the biggest box-office hit of her career. The latter was her final film, and the only color film she appeared in. Arthur's first marriage, to photographer Julian Anker in 1928, was annulled after one day. She married producer Frank Ross, Jr. in 1932. They divorced in 1949. Arthur did not have any children. Jean Arthur died from heart failure at the age of 90. Her ashes were scattered at sea near Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

And not necessarily in that order!

Whoa!

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One word about using the Letorneau Jungle Crusher in Vietnam... Tunnels.