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Sunder & Family Grooving to Dunder Mirchi's A Capella Tunes

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Joel Stein's Awesome Column: Awesome Because What's Not to Identify With?

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Brunch Time: Vadai-Sambar, Masala-Dosai, Samosas & Omelettes

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The Flautist, My Second-Born: A Born Star!

Last Sunday at the Sixty-Second Annual Bands In Review Concert, my second-born shone as she played the flute.  Pictures and an audio recording follow:


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Ek Main Aur Ek Tu, 2012

Kareena Kapoor might be fun-loving and funky, and Imran Khan adorable as ever, but good looks and being chirpy does not a good movie make.  For one thing, there’s hardly any chemistry between the two, and for another, the plot is weak, forgettable, and extremely predictable from the first screen onwards.

Of course we know he’s going to let her move in with him; of course we know they’re going to do something stupid– if not for anything else but for the fact that they live in Vegas– and of course, he’s going to eventually stand his ground to his parents.

Big deal!  Well, okay, I’ll concede that in principle its not too bad a plot for a romantic comedy, but for a show that runs for almost two hours, you gotta give me something more than blah.

Ekmainaurektu

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On This Day: March 31

Updated March 30, 2012, 2:28 pm

NYT Front Page

On March 31, 1968,President Johnson stunned the country by announcing he would not run for another term of office.

Go to article »

On March 31, 1927, Cesar Chavez, who became the leader of migrant American farm workers, was born. Following his death on April 23, 1993, his obituary appeared in The Times.

Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »

 

On This Date

By The Associated Press

1492 King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain issued an edict expelling Jews unwilling to convert to Christianity.
1889 French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel unfurled the French tricolor from atop the Eiffel Tower to mark its completion.
1917 The United States took possession of the Virgin Islands from Denmark.
1943 The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Oklahoma!” opened on Broadway.
1945 “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams opened on Broadway.
1976 The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that coma patient Karen Anne Quinlan could be disconnected from her respirator. (Quinlan remained comatose and died in 1985.)
1992 The U.N. Security Council voted to ban flights and arms sales to Libya, branding it a terrorist state for shielding six men accused of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 and a French airliner.
1995 Singer Selena, 23, was shot to death in Corpus Christi, Texas, by the founder of her fan club.
1995 Baseball players agreed to end a 232-day strike after a judge granted a preliminary injunction against club owners.
1999 Four New York City police officers were charged with murder for killing Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant, in a hail of bullets. (They were acquited in 2000.)
2004 Four American civilian contractors were killed in Fallujah, Iraq; frenzied crowds dragged their burned, mutilated bodies and strung two of them from a bridge.
2005 Terri Schiavo died at a hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., 13 days after her feeding tube was removed in a wrenching right-to-die dispute.

Current Birthdays

By The Associated Press

Barney Frank, U.S. congressman, D-Mass.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., turns 72 years old today.

AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

Ewan McGregor, Actor

Actor Ewan McGregor turns 41 years old today.

AP Photo/Dan Steinberg

1928 Gordie Howe, Hockey Hall of Famer, turns 84
1934 Richard Chamberlain, Actor, turns 78
1934 Shirley Jones, Actress (“The Partridge Family”), turns 78
1935 Herb Alpert, Musician, turns 77
1940 Patrick Leahy, U.S. senator, D-Vt., turns 72
1943 Christopher Walken, Actor, turns 69
1945 Gabe Kaplan, Actor, comedian (“Welcome Back Kotter”), turns 67
1948 Al Gore, Former vice president, Nobel Peace Prize winner, turns 64
1948 Rhea Perlman, Actress (“Cheers”), turns 64
1950 Ed Marinaro, Actor (“Hill Street Blues”), turns 62
1955 Angus Young, Rock musician (AC/DC), turns 57
1983 Christian Scott, Jazz trumpeter, turns 29
1985 Jessica Szohr, Actress (“Gossip Girl”), turns 27

 

Historic Birthdays

Cesar Chavez 3/31/1927 – 4/23/1993 American organizer and leader of migrant American farm workers.Go to obituary »
53 Rene Descartes 3/31/1596 – 2/11/1650
French mathematician, scientist and philosopher
77 Franz Joseph Haydn 3/31/1732 – 5/31/1809
Austrian composer of the Classical period
74 Edward Fitzgerald 3/31/1809 – 6/14/1883
English writer and translator (“Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam”)
87 James M. Cox 3/31/1870 – 7/15/1957
American newspaper publisher and governor of Ohio (1913-15, 1917-21)
50 Arthur Griffith 3/31/1872 – 8/12/1922
Irish journalist and principal founder of Sinn Fein movement
57 Serge Diaghilev 3/31/1872 – 8/19/1929
Russian impresario; created Ballets Russes in 1909
68 Jack Johnson 3/31/1878 – 6/10/1946
American boxer; heavyweight champion
81 Sir Lawrence Bragg 3/31/1890 – 7/1/1971
Australian-born English Nobel Prize-winning physicist
93 John McCloy 3/31/1895 – 3/11/1989
American diplomat, lawyer, and presidential adviser
84 Octavio Paz 3/31/1914 – 4/19/1998
Mexican Nobel Prize-winning poet, writer and diplomat

 

 

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March 31

MORNING

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.”
Song of Solomon 1:2

For several days we have been dwelling upon the Saviour’s passion, and for some little time to come we shall linger there. In beginning a new month, let us seek the same desires after our Lord as those which glowed in the heart of the elect spouse. See how she leaps at once to him; there are no prefatory words; she does not even mention his name; she is in the heart of her theme at once, for she speaks of him who was the only him in the world to her. How bold is her love! It was much condescension which permitted the weeping penitent to anoint his feet with spikenard–it was rich love which allowed the gentle Mary to sit at his feet and learn of him–but here, love, strong, fervent love, aspires to higher tokens of regard, and closer signs of fellowship. Esther trembled in the presence of Ahasuerus, but the spouse in joyful liberty of perfect love knows no fear. If we have received the same free spirit, we also may ask the like. By kisses we suppose to be intended those varied manifestations of affection by which the believer is made to enjoy the love of Jesus. The kiss of reconciliation we enjoyed at our conversion, and it was sweet as honey dropping from the comb. The kiss of acceptance is still warm on our brow, as we know that he hath accepted our persons and our works through rich grace. The kiss of daily, present communion is that which we pant after to be repeated day after day, till it is changed into the kiss of reception, which removes the soul from earth, and the kiss of consummation which fills it with the joy of heaven. Faith is our walk, but fellowship sensibly felt is our rest. Faith is the road, but communion with Jesus is the well from which the pilgrim drinks. O lover of our souls, be not strange to us; let the lips of thy blessing meet the lips of our asking; let the lips of thy fulness touch the lips of our need, and straightway the kiss will be effected.

EVENING

“It is time to seek the Lord.”
Hosea 10:12

This month of April is said to derive its name from the Latin verb aperio, which signifies to open, because all the buds and blossoms are now opening, and we have arrived at the gates of the flowery year. Reader, if you are yet unsaved, may your heart, in accord with the universal awakening of nature, be opened to receive the Lord. Every blossoming flower warns you that it is time to seek the Lord; be not out of tune with nature, but let your heart bud and bloom with holy desires. Do you tell me that the warm blood of youth leaps in your veins? then, I entreat you, give your vigour to the Lord. It was my unspeakable happiness to be called in early youth, and I could fain praise the Lord every day for it. Salvation is priceless, let it come when it may, but oh! an early salvation has a double value in it. Young men and maidens, since you may perish ere you reach your prime, “It is time to seek the Lord.” Ye who feel the first signs of decay, quicken your pace: that hollow cough, that hectic flush, are warnings which you must not trifle with; with you it is indeed time to seek the Lord. Did I observe a little grey mingled with your once luxurious tresses? Years are stealing on apace, and death is drawing nearer by hasty marches, let each return of spring arouse you to set your house in order. Dear reader, if you are now advanced in life, let me entreat and implore you to delay no longer. There is a day of grace for you now–be thankful for that, but it is a limited season and grows shorter every time that clock ticks. Here in this silent chamber, on this first night of another month, I speak to you as best I can by paper and ink, and from my inmost soul, as God’s servant, I lay before you this warning, “It is time to seek the Lord.” Slight not that work, it may be your last call from destruction, the final syllable from the lip of grace.

 

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