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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, 2011

“Be still.  I haven’t done this before.  And there will be blood.”  With that polite preface, Lisbeth Salander, the undisputed heroine of this mystery-thriller movie wreaks punitive damages upon her predator.  And that is only the beginning of what she will do when she sets her mind to it.  Other things she excels at is serving as a superb research assistant to solving forty-year old crimes in small-town Sweden, and engaging in world-class computer hacking.  Oh, and she has a thing for tattoos, if you haven’t guessed that already.

Very true to the book, this is a must-see for anyone who thinks Ms. Salander is one heck of a woman who looks more like a child, but acts like a ruthless dictator when she needs to.  But there’s a soft side to her as well, displayed on the rare occasion, which by the end of the story is quite evident with the other protagonist of this story, Blomkvist, the journalist.

The conventional happy ending to this story is limited to the fact that heinous murder mysteries are solved, financial losses recovered, reputations restored, and a magazine brought back from the brink of collapse.  But in matters of the heart, there isn’t much to write home about.  Which is how life sometimes is:  when the rug is pulled out from under you, you get up, and kick some posterior!

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On This Day: December 23

Updated December 22, 2011, 1:28 pm

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On Dec. 23, 1986, the experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first non-stop, around-the-world flight without refueling as it landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Go to article »

On Dec. 23, 1867, Sarah Breedlove Walker, the American businesswoman and philanthropist considered to be the first black female millionaire , was born. Following her death on May 25, 1919, her obituary appeared in The Times.

Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »

On This Date

By The Associated Press
1783 George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the Army and retired to his home at Mount Vernon, Va.
1788 Maryland passed an act to cede a parcel of land for the seat of the national government, part of which later became the District of Columbia.
1823 The poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement C. Moore was first published, in the Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel.
1941 American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese during World War II.
1948 Former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed in Tokyo.
1972 The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Oakland Raiders 13-7 in an NFL playoff game on a last-second touchdown catch by Franco Harris that was dubbed the “immaculate reception.”
1995 A fire in Dabwali, India, killed 540 people, including 170 children, during a year-end party being held near the children’s school.
1997 A federal jury in Denver convicted Terry Nichols of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
2003 The government announced the first suspected case of mad cow disease in United States.
2003 A jury in Chesapeake, Va., sentenced teen sniper Lee Boyd Malvo to life in prison, sparing him the death penalty.
2004 Former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland pleaded guilty to a corruption charge. (He served 10 months in prison.)
2009 The parents who pulled the “balloon boy” hoax in hopes of landing a reality TV show, were sentenced to jail by a judge in Fort Collins, Colo.

Current Birthdays

By The Associated Press
Susan Lucci, Actress (“All My Children”)

Actress Susan Lucci (“All My Children”) turns 65 years old today.

AP Photo/Dan Steinberg

Akihito, Emperor of Japan

Japanese Emperor Akihito turns 78 years old today.

AP Photo/Koji Sasahara

1924 Bob Kurland, Basketball Hall of Famer, turns 87
1935 Paul Hornung, Football Hall of Famer, turns 76
1940 Jorma Kaukonen, Rock musician (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna), turns 71
1943 Harry Shearer, Actor, comedian (“The Simpsons”), turns 68
1948 Jack Ham, Football Hall of Famer, turns 63
1949 Adrian Belew, Rock musician, producer, turns 62
1964 Eddie Vedder, Rock singer (Pearl Jam), turns 47
1978 Victor Martinez, Baseball player, turns 33
1983 Hanley Ramirez, Baseball player, turns 28

Historic Birthdays

Sarah Breedlove Walker 12/23/1867 – 5/25/1919 American philanthropist. Go to obituary »
41 Robert Barclay 12/23/1648 – 10/3/1690
English-born American Quaker leader
71 James Gibbs 12/23/1682 – 8/5/1754
Scottish architect
41 Jean-Francois Champollion 12/23/1790 – 3/4/1832
French historian and linguist
38 Joseph Smith 12/23/1805 – 6/27/1844
American founder of the Mormon Church
75 Oscar Solomon Straus 12/23/1850 – 5/3/1926
American member of President Wilson’s cabinet
68 James Buchanan Duke 12/23/1856 – 10/10/1925
American tobacco magnate
84 Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko 12/23/1858 – 4/25/1943
Russian playwright
76 Emil Brunner 12/23/1889 – 4/6/1966
Swiss theologian

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Gingerbread House: Too Pretty to Eat, But We Ate it Anyway!

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255/365/01

On the Lawrence River in Montreal on a day unlike today, which happens to be the shortest day of the year in the Northern hemisphere. 

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Zingerman's: A Gourmet Kosher Experience

World-famous delicatessen downtown in a historic building that serves up the most amazing gourmet sandwiches with crunchy dill pickles.  We had the Zingerman’s Reuben, the Wheat-Barley Soup, and a huge Latke that came w/ applesauce and sourcream.  Mmmmm!

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For Better or For Worse: Is This You, or Your Spouse?

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Sign at My Local Bank: I Couldn't Agree More!

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Untraceable, 2008

A most intense performance by Diane Lane in this horror-thriller of a movie will have you at the edge of your seat with your heart pounding so loud you will wonder if the utter depravity and cruelty of the human condition could possibly get any worse– so repulsed and frightened will be you be by the end of it.  Or perhaps that was just me, but I’ll bet good money, that would be you too!

Very slick in the making, this is a story that is as tight and intense as the actors in it.  The two themes of cyber-crime and cyber-voyeurism are explored for their many good and evil connotations, and for the most part, it is the latter that is dwelt upon.  Needless to say, it is a wake-up call in this age of information technology as to what is humanly possible, and the fact that time, space and distance seem irrelevant in the grand scheme of wreaking death and destruction on an unsuspecting victim.

The irony, of course, is the fact that the movie itself is the very example of voyeurism that it makes a moral claim of condemning!  Well, that’s how things go in Hollywood:  how else to tell a realistic story without succumbing to the evils of realism?

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