Archive for the ‘Beard of the Week’ Category
Beard of the Week LXC: Good Company
This week's beard belongs to Stephen Sondheim (b 1930, on the right), joined here by George Furth (1932–2008, on the left). They're here to provide an excuse for me to write a bit about our musical-theater troupe's recent production of "Company", a musical with book written by Furth, music and lyrics written by Sondheim. The […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Music & Art, Personal Notebook
Beard of the Week LXXXIX: It's Cool that No One's in Charge
I think one of the defining moments of adulthood is the realization that nobody's going to take care of you. That you have to do the heavy lifting while you're here. And when you don't, well, you suffer the consequences. At least I have. (And in the empirical study I'm performing about interacting with the […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Common-Place Book
Beard of the Week LXXXVIII: Doppelgänger
Today's beard belongs to a man named Phil Jackson (b. 1945), unknown to me until today. A native of Montana (I like this bio in the "Cool Montana Stories" section of montanakids.com), Mr. Jackson is the current head coach for the LA Lakers basketball team; a position he held once before, Grover Cleveland fashion. He's […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Personal Notebook
Beard of the Week LXXXVII: The Amazing Randi
This week's magnificent, brilliantly white beard belongs to James Randi, aka "The Amazing Randi". I like this succinct summary from his official biography (bio & photo source): James Randi is a retired professional magician (“The Amazing Randi”), author, lecturer, amateur archaeologist/astronomer. Born in 1928 in Toronto, Canada, where he received his high school education. He […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Faaabulosity
Beard of the Week LXXXVI: Fall of the Roman Empire
it's been awhile, far too long really, but I'm back with more beards of interest, at least to me. This week's handsome granite-colored beard belongs to British actor Anthony Quayle (1918–1989). I saw him a few night ago, looking as he does in this photograph, when we spent a snowed-in evening watching the film "The […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Music & Art
Beard of the Week LXXXV: An Early Conservationist
This week's historic beard belongs to Congressman John Fletcher Lacey (1841 – 1913).* Mr. Lacey came to my attention while I was writing a short article on the introduction of starlings to North America ("Starlings Arrive in North America"), of all things. Just how his name came up should become clear shortly. Here is my […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Wanderings
Beard of the Week LXXXIV: Astrology Revealed
This week's beard belongs to the youthful Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), who established the intellectual starting point for this short discussion. In Galileo's day [c. 1610], the study of astronomy was used to maintain and reform the calendar. Sufficiently advanced students of astronomy made horoscopes; the alignment of the stars was believed to influence everything from […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, It's Only Rocket Science
Beard of the Week LXXXIII: Variations on America
This week's beard belongs to American composer Charles E. Ives (1874-1954). He's been a personal favorite ever since I tripped over some of his music a few decades ago. It is hard to find a biography of Ives that does not use the phrases "iconoclastic" and "quintessentially American". (This nice one, also the source of […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Music & Art
Beard of the Week LXXXII: Space-Time Expands
This week's beard belongs to* author John R. Gribbin (1946– ), a science writer who started life as an astrophysicist. (His website.) I've read and mentioned a few of his books here in the last year or so, and I've been enjoying them so far. The one that I most recently read and enjoyed is […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Books, It's Only Rocket Science
Beard of the Week LXXXI: Pagan Russia
This week's beard belongs to Nicholas Konstantinovich Roerich* (1874–1947), painter, lawyer, peace activist — any number of things, it seems. Excerpting some from biographical notes from the Nicholas Roerich Museum of New York Nicholas Konstantinovich Roerich was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on October 9, 1874, the first-born son of lawyer and notary, Konstantin Roerich […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Music & Art
Beard of the Week LXXX: Magnets & Relativity
This week's beard* belongs to Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879). He did significant work in several fields (including statistical physics and thermodynamics, in which I used to research) but his fame is associated with his electromagnetic theory. Electromagnetism combined the phenomena of electricity and magnetism into one, unified field theory. Unified field theories are […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, It's Only Rocket Science
Beard of the Week LXXIX: Up, Up, Up and Away
This week's pair of stylish, mid-nineteenth-century beards belong to Les Frères Tissandier,* the brothers Albert Tissandier (1839-1906) on the left, and Gaston Tissandier (1843-1899). Albert was the artist, known as an illustrator, and Gaston was the scientist and aviator.† The Tissandier Brothers were pioneering adventurers (only Gaston did the flying) in high-altitude balloon ascensions. From […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, It's Only Rocket Science
Beard of the Week LXXVIII: Zeppeliner
This week's beard, the best example we've seen so far of an actual "goatee", belongs to Ludwig Dürr (1878–1955), remembered as the chief engineer who built the successful Zeppelin airships. After an unsatisfactory one-year period in the navy, Dürr was hired, on 15 January 1899, as an engineer at Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH, the company that […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, It's Only Rocket Science
Beard of the Week LXXVII: Come Out and Get Married!
This week's gorgeously multi-colored beard belongs to the newly out-as-gay David Ogden Stiers, beloved of many TV fans for his portrayal of Major Charles Winchester for six years on the television series "M*A*S*H". (Photo source.) Excerpting from The Advocate:* Television and voice actor David Ogden Stiers has come out of the closet at age 66. […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Current Events, Faaabulosity
Beard of the Week LXXVI: Barbe en Château
This week's stylishly modern-looking beard belongs to the unidentified subject of a painting, known as "Portrait of a Red-Bearded Man", attributed to Dutch painter Jan Anthonisz van Ravensteyn (c. 1570–1657), a man for whom I can find virtually no biographical information. Judging from dates painted on the canvas (outside the frame of my cropped image […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Music & Art
Beard of the Week LXXV: Two Benfords
This week's beard belongs to physicist and science-fiction author Gregory Benford. His official website, source of the photograph, tells us that Benford [born in Mobile, Alabama, on January 30, 1941] is a professor of physics at the University of California, Irvine, where he has been a faculty member since 1971. Benford conducts research in plasma […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, It's Only Rocket Science
Beard of the Week LXXIV: A Pious Father
This week's pious beard belongs to St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. He was given the name Francesco at his baptism the day after his birth on 25 May 1887. Continuing with his official Vatican biography On 6 January 1903, at the age of sixteen, he entered the novitiate of the Capuchin Friars at Morcone, where […]
Beard of the Week LXXIII: Neo-Classical Painting
This week's precisely styled beard belongs to Victorian artist Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836–1912). This image I've cropped from his famous "Self-Portrait" of 1896. (visible, e.g., here.) I like the short biography at "Olga's Gallery", but perhaps the quick introductory summary from the longer Wikipedia article on Alma-Tadema will serve us here: Born in Dronrijp, the […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Music & Art
Beard of the Week LXXII: Mardi Gras
"Mardis Gras 2002" photo by highstrungloner Today's beard belongs to the attractive gentleman in the leather coat enjoying street festivities during Mardi Gras, 2002, in the Latin Quarter of New Orleans. I might add that the Fu Manchu mustache his companion wears is certainly not chopped liver.* I'm particularly enchanted by the sign for […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Reflections
Beard of the Week LXXI: The Power of Words
This week's iconic beard belongs to Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865), 16th President of the United States. As many have noted in this, his bicentennial year, it is also Charles Darwin's bicentennial year: Lincoln and Darwin were born on the same date in the same year.* Last week we looked at […]
In: All, Beard of the Week, Reflections