Flashback Friday — Advice: Marilyn edition, “The few remaining earthbound stars”

This post originally appeared on May 19, 2010 at 3:53 p.m.

I am involved in a freedom ride protesting the loss of the minority rights belonging to the few remaining earthbound stars. All we demanded was our right to twinkle.

(Telegram from Marilyn Monroe declining a party invitation from Bobby and Ethel Kennedy. June 13, 1962.)

You got to fight for your right to twinkle. It is difficult and discouraging and at times seems insurmountable, but in the end, you are raised up to the sky to shine forever. Please try to help each other out and let’s none of us lose heart.

Advice: Marilyn edition, “The few remaining earthbound stars”

I am involved in a freedom ride protesting the loss of the minority rights belonging to the few remaining earthbound stars. All we demanded was our right to twinkle.

(Telegram from Marilyn Monroe declining a party invitation from Bobby and Ethel Kennedy. June 13, 1962.)

You got to fight for your right to twinkle. It is difficult and discouraging and at times seems insurmountable, but in the end, you are raised up to the sky to shine forever. Please try to help each other out and let’s none of us lose heart.

Daily Batman: Blinding you with Science

Can Beach Bunny Batgirl get Scientific with you?

On this date in 1981, the space shuttle Columbia completed its first successful orbit, landing safely at Edwards AFB in Antelope Valley, CA. In 1932, the atom was split by Cockroft and Walton in the Cavendish Labs. Like, dang. Those are some incredible scientific landmarks of just the sort that Sir Isaac Newton was speaking in the above quote.

My god, what a century of achievements. What will we do next? Keep your mind open and don’t be afraid of advancements — the only way to prevent a dystopian future run by cyborgs and genetically enhanced a-holes is to stay ethically invested in the coming leaps of technology. The only way to guarantee Bizarro Robocops and sentient microwaves stalking your cloned stem-cell baby with iPod implant neck shunts and laser gun wristwatches is to not care and not keep up with change. Cell phones freak me out and I don’t even know how to begin to use touchscreen notebooks, but I’m determined to learn this year. No burying my head in the sand (or clouds, more likely) and hiding from Change for me — not anymore.

Because I look at that quote from the freaking father of physics, thank you very much, and think of all the science that has rocked our world through the years, and each time a new advancement came along, there were frightened people, shellshocked Luddites like myself waving their arms around and crying “We’re all gonna die! Apocalypse now!” but it never happened, because humanity’s better nature has inevitably prevailed, and we’ve assimilated as best we could each new challenge to keeping the lid on our growing godlike powers. As fearsome as that is, if I am concerned, that’s exactly why I should not give up on the Future, right? If I’m so worried about it, why don’t I put my money where my big scared mouth is and stick around to defend it? Ought we not fight for the future to be a brave and conscience-guided good one instead of cringing in the corner, wringing our hands and refusing to look growing technology square in the eye?

I believe that great changes at which, like Sir Isaac Newton, we can not even possibly begin to guess are going to come in our lifetimes but we can make it a safe and morally-centered time with the potential to better the lives of everyone on Earth, so long as we try and don’t give up or get overwhelmed. I believe this is possible. I really do. I’m in a new and more positive place than I’ve ever been.

Okay, so I guess in addition to getting Scientific with you, I also got a little Hippie. I have those kind of tendencies. Thanks for loving me anyway. (My providing you with all kinds of softcore porn has I’m sure nothing to do with it.)

NSFW November: Miss November 1996, Ulrika Ericsson

The lovely and talented Swedish-born Ulrika Ericsson was in America working hard as a swimsuit model and looking for acting gigs when she posed for Playboy as Miss November 1996.

Photographed by Arny Freytag

Get it? She is done up like the newsboy, at the newsstand in front of the display of Playboys. “Wuxtree, wuxtree!” Super-cute. Great theme, well-executed, and she has a very sweet innocence that makes it playfully tease-y instead of costumey and skankeriffic.

However, the acting thing must not have panned out, because other than Playboy credits, the imdb lists her most recent work in front of the camera as being a host for a Swedish show called “Nyehtsmorgon.”

Nyhetsmorgon är TV4:s morgonprogram i TV. Programmet var vid starten 1992 det första dagliga morgonprogrammet i svensk tv. Nyhetsmorgon har hämtat inspiration från amerikanska NBCs The Today Show, som var världens första morgonprogram på TV när det började sändas i januari 1952. Nyhetsmorgon är Sveriges största morgonprogram med över fem miljoner tittare i veckan och 1300 timmar sändningstid om året.[1] Konkurrenter i genren är Gomorron Sverige i SVT1 och Vakna med The Voice i Kanal 5. (the wiki)

Ran that through a handy-dandy translator and got much less hilarious results than I was hoping for (sometimes translation software spews wonderfully broken interpretations of the original text) but here they are:

Nyhetsmorgon is TV4’s morgonprogram* in television. The programme was at the start 1992 the first daily morgonprogrammet on Swedish television. Nyhetsmorgon have drawn inspiration from the American NBCs The Today Show, which was the world’s first morgonprogram on the television when it started sent in January 1952. Nyhetsmorgon is Sweden’s largest morgonprogram with more than 5 million viewers in the week and 1300 hours transmission time of year. Competitors in the genre are Gomorron Sweden in SVT1 and wake up with the Voice of Channel 5.

*let’s all agree that means “morning program;” I mean, I know we must beware of false cognates and such when attempting translation but I’m going to make the leap.

That picture is adorable. I am going to assume Ms. Ericsson is okay with what life has handed her, career-wise, over the years, because of this quote from her Playmate interview

“The Vikings understood that good looks don’t last forever. Their idea of success was to die young, go to Valhalla and fight with the gods against the giants.” (“How Swede It Is,” Reg Potterton. Playboy, November 1996)

And this picture is super-triple-dog adorable. Also, enormous. It’s wallpaper sized. You’re welcome!

Because I am a spectacularly great friend, I used that same software program to give you an opening line to lay on Ulrika should you ever get the opportunity: “I am an agent for Hollywood. I have a very big part for you.” “Jag är en agent för Hollywood. Jag har en mycket stor roll för er.”

You’re welcome again!

NSFW November: Miss November 1993, Julianna Young

Okay, the possibility of that last girl being so drastically underaged in my opinion skeeved me out bad. So I looked for my oldest Miss November and here she is, a Kentucky girl who was living in Florida at the time of her appearance in Playboy.

No photo credit that I can find so far.

When the lovely and talented Julianna Young appeared for Playboy as Miss November in 1993, she was 33, tying Miss April 1985, Cindy Brooks, as the oldest Playmate to pose for a centerfold up until that time (please note that Playmates of the Month are different from the bunnies, the models featured on the cover, the girls in the tearsheets, and whatever actress or model is in the celebrity spreads who appear in any particular issue of the magazine).

For the record, they were both beaten out for the all-time most vine-ripened Playmate title when Rebecca Ramos posed at 35 in the January 2003 issue — and Tia Carrere (Wayne’s World, Jury Duty), 36 at the time, was the celebrity model in that issue, no less. Nice hustle on the dirty thirties, dudes! Chronologically enhanced ladies need love, too. But please be aware, that is the only thing Ms. Young says is enhanced about her.

Sorry, again, I do not know even at all who took the pictures for this spread. But 38 DD, to answer the other question.

“My large breasts are actually a blessing. They’ll get me through the door, and my brains can keep me there.”

TURNOFFS:
I am too liberal-minded to have any, nor is it my place to preach.

LAST GOOD CRY:
The hour and a half I spent watching the movie Free Willy. Also, seeing the devastation from Hurricane Andrew.

WHERE I LIVE:
I come from south Florida, a sunny place for shady characters.

That’s a great line. I mock Floridians all the time. I like to pretend it’s like a crazy colony for convicts, but I’m only kidding. It’s not like it’s as bad as Australia or anything. (left-field sick burn comin’ atcha, Oz!) Girl, you’re okay.

The Brazilian triplets cover story is thought-provoking, jes? I may go investigate that.

Welcome to Wednesday Wednesday!

It’s Wednesday. What do you know!

Amanda: Is that your bathing suit?
Wednesday: Is that your overbite?

Gary: Now, one of you will be the drowning victim and the other one gets to be our lifesaver.
Amanda: I’ll be the victim!
Wednesday: All your life.

Breaking news: don’t lose your cool

This just in: it is important to be cool and not lose it.

Got a whole lot of business to take care of today, followed by several all-girl celebrations of major life-changing events to attend, first for Sarah-fina and then divine Miss D. Won’t be posting much, most likely. Even if I’m home I’ll probably just be sitting here ghosting and flipping through music and pictures. I have to have alone time, I have to hide in my cave before seeing a lot of people like this in such a high pressure situation, even one of happiness. A lot of the time, I get flustered and awkward about a day like today, but I had some strangely sunny spots in this week and I’m actually feeling pretty good.

The main thing is not to lose my cool. Or, as I once told my dear old friendoh Mr. Richard “dik” Whitten when we were expressing concern about our very inebriated decision to take a trip to the movies, “It’s going to be great. We just have to maintain. Maintain.” Then I dropped my popcorn on the floor. Then when they gave me a new bucket I put mustard instead of butter on it. Confound the Irvine AMC and its baffling concessions! It happens!

Wish me luck and I will be taking tons of pictures.