WA2K Radio is now on the air

From what I heard about Auden lunch wouldn't be your standard iced melon and salmon sandwiches.

Well, hello, spendius. The general idea of the poem was to leave the beach exactly as it was as a grave reminder of war.

Speaking of which, folks.




Dawn stretched her golden fingers, caressing the swarthy handsome face lying on a pillow. It was a face responsible for the swoonings of women around the world. However, Dawn herself was the only one who touched his face this morning. Her undying adoration shone too brightly, and someone began to shut the window's blinds.

The dark eyelashes stirred, as if they felt the absence of worship. Lids opened to reveal chocolate brown eyes as generous lips parted to say, "Don't pull down the blinds. I feel fine. I want the sunlight to greet me."

But Dawn was to greet her Latin Lover for the last time. At 12:10 p.m., the chocolate eyes closed forever and would no longer feel the sunlight's caress.

On August 23, 1926, silent film star Rudolph Valentino uttered his last words in a stark hospital room. He slipped into a coma due to complications after surgery and left the world that worshiped him shortly after noon.

News of Valentino's death hit his fans hard - many committed suicide to be with their beloved Rudy. His friends and colleagues were devastated. When a private funeral service was held for Rudy at St. Malachi's in New York, it was besieged by more than 15,000 overwrought women.

Rudolph Valentino was laid to rest at Hollywood Memorial Park, where thousands of rose petals rained down on the funeral procession, courtesy of a small airplane. His body was carried to the Cathedral Mausoleum and placed in crypt number 1205, fittingly beside a romantic stained glass window.

Four years later, at the unveiling of a monument in Valentino's honor, several people noticed a mysterious woman standing at the fringes of the crowd. She wore a black dress and a black veil that completely covered her face. Afterwards, she was always seen at the monument and at Valentino's grave on the anniversary of his death.

Rumors began to spread about the identity of the mysterious lady in black. Some said she was Rudy Valentino's one true love; others claimed that it was just a fan imitating the 1930's movie "The Only Normal Man in Hollywood". In the film, a woman dressed completely in black visits Valentino's gravesite every year.

Copycats soon began adorning themselves in black and making solemn trips to Rudy's final resting place. In 1939, three women in black were spotted at his grave. In 1940, a former Ziegfeld girl named Marian E.Watson gained press coverage when she announced that she was the original lady in black. She went on to spin an outlandish tale of how she secretly married Valentino and gave him two children. She is also reported as saying that Rudy proposed to her the night before he was hospitalized. No one believed a word of this, since Rudy was very involved with actress Pola Negri before his death.

Hey-did you know that Hank Janson was from the East-End of London.His real name was Stephen Frances and to give you a flavour check out Skirts Bring Me Sorrow.

spendius, darling. I wasn't allowed to read them dirty books when I was a kid, consequently, I don't know Hank Janson.

News item:




'Star Trek' Actor George Takei Comes Out 14 minutes ago



LOS ANGELES - George Takei, who as helmsman Sulu steered the Starship Enterprise through three television seasons and six movies, has come out as a homosexual in the current issue of Frontiers, a biweekly Los Angeles magazine covering the gay and lesbian community.



Takei told The Associated Press on Thursday that his new onstage role as psychologist Martin Dysart in "Equus," helped inspire him to publicly discuss his sexuality.

Takei described the character as a "very contained but turbulently frustrated man." The play opened Wednesday at the David Henry Hwang Theater in Los Angeles, the same day that Frontiers magazine featured a story on Takei's coming out.

The current social and political climate also motivated Takei's disclosure, he said.

"The world has changed from when I was a young teen feeling ashamed for being gay," he said. "The issue of gay marriage is now a political issue. That would have been unthinkable when I was young."

The 68-year-old actor said he and his partner, Brad Altman, have been together for 18 years.

Good for George!

Are you not bothered whether it was good for Brad?

Good morning WA2K.

Letty: Your Lunch at Omaha Beach is nowhere to be found. Really, I've looked everywhere for it. I've got one I can't find either. Not a lunch - a poem.

And Letty, look who is celebrating a birthday today.

Edgar: I love that Auden poem. My favorite is:

Funeral Blues

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever; I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood,
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

W. H. Auden

1510 - St. Francis Borgia, Spanish duke and Jesuit priest (d. 1572)
1585 - Cornelius Jansen, French bishop and religious reformer (d. 1638)
1691 - Peder Tordenskjold, Norwegian naval hero (d. 1720)
1703 - Antoine Deparcieux, French mathematician (d. 1768)
1718 - Ignacije Szentmartony, Croatian geographer (d. 1793)
1793 - Eliphalet Remington, American firearms manufacturer (d. 1861)
1804 - Pierre François Verhulst, Belgian mathematician (d. 1849)
1846 - Georges Auguste Escoffier, French chef (d. 1935)
1885 - Velimir Khlebnikov, Russian poet (d. 1922)
1892 - Dink Johnson, American musician (d. 1954)
1896 - Howard Hanson, American composer (d. 1981)
1902 - Elsa Lanchester, British-born actress (d. 1986)
1903 - Evelyn Waugh, English writer (d. 1966)
1907 - Edith Head, American costume designer (d. 1981)
1909 - Francis Bacon, Irish painter (d. 1992)
1912 - Richard Doll, English epidemiologist (d. 2005)
1914 - Jonas Salk, American medical scientist (d. 1995)
1914 - Richard Laurence Millington Synge, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
1915 - Paul Jarrico, American screenwriter (d. 1997)
1922 - Gershon Kingsley, German composer
1922 - Simon Muzenda, Zimbabwean politician (d. 2003)
1930 - Bernie Ecclestone, English racing official
1932 - Suzy Parker, American actress (d. 2003)
1937 - Charlie Daniels, American musician
1938 - Anne Perry, English-born novelist
1939 - Jane Alexander, American actress
1944 - Dennis Franz, American actor
1948 - Telma Hopkins, American singer
1949 - Bruce Jenner, American athlete
1955 - Bill Gates, American software pioneer
1963 - Eros Ramazzotti, Italian singer
1966 - Steve Atwater, American football player
1967 - Julia Roberts, American actress
1967 - John Romero, American video game designer
1968 - Ben Harper. American musician
1972 - Terrell Davis, American football player
1974 - Joaquin Phoenix, Puerto Rican-born actor
1979 - Aki Hakala, The drummer of The Rasmus
1980 - Alan Smith, English footballer
1981 - Milan Baros, Czech footballer

Raggedy, you are a pearl of great price, honey. Thanks again for the celeb updates and the additional Auden poem.

Listeners, if I could describe Joaquin Phoenix to you, I would say:

Dark brooding eyes

Roman nose

A slight scar on upper lip indicating possible surgery.

If I could see inside his soul, I would find darkness, I'm afraid.

spendius, I am bothered by anyone's trial that involves expression, just as I was sad because of Oscar Wilde.

"...there is within us, and with sadness I have watched it in others, a cruelty borne by the stream of love....."

Anyone know that quote?

what colour is your Ibis?

<smile> Well, dys, it's scarlet just like the letter.

For Hester and Arthur:

~ by Chris DeBurgh

I've never seen you looking so lovely as you did tonight
I've never seen you shine so bright
I've never seen so many men ask you if you wanted to dance
They're looking for a little romance
Given half a chance
And I've never seen that dress you're wearing
Or that highlights in your hair
That catch your eyes
I have been blind

CHORUS

The lady in red is dancing with me
Cheek to cheek
There's nobody here
It's just you and me
It's where I wanna be
But I hardly know this beauty by my side
I'll never forget the way you look tonight

I've never seen you looking so gorgeous as you did tonight
I've never seen you shine so bright you were amazing
I've never seen so many people want to be there by your side
And when you turned to me and smiled it took my breath away
And I have never had such a feeling such a feeling
Of complete and utter love, as I do tonight

CHORUS I never will forget the way you look tonight
The lady in red
My lady in red

So, dys. You, cowboy, are well "red"

Pale pink.


Letty-Oscar knew it was illegal and Frank Harris and others offered to get him to France before the trial.He wasn't done for the thing itself.He was done for perjury as I understand it.And he ended up in France after Reading anyway.He brought it on himself.A member of the awkward squad goodstyle.
Harris wrote a great biog.He was no victim of English narrow mindedness.

Elsa Lanchester
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Elsa Lanchester (October 28, 1902-December 26, 1986), was a British-born American character actress, perhaps best-known as the long-suffering wife of Charles Laughton. Her birth name was Elizabeth Sullivan.

Lanchester married Laughton in 1929, and one of her first screen appearances was opposite him in The Private Life of Henry VIII (as a highly comical Anne of Cleves). This and other appearances in British films helped her gain the title role in Bride of Frankenstein (1935). She continued to appear with her husband, for example in Rembrandt (1936), but never made a name as a female lead, mainly due to her lack of conventional beauty.

Following Laughton's death in 1962, Lanchester continued to act, making occasional film appearances such as the departing nanny, Katie Nanna, in the opening scenes of Mary Poppins, and a sleuth based on 'Jane Marple' in the 1976 murder mystery spoof, Murder by Death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsa_Lanchester

Evelyn Waugh
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Evelyn Arthur St. John Waugh (October 28, 1903 - April 10, 1966) was an English satirical novelist, brother of Alec Waugh and father of Auberon Waugh. He is generally regarded as one the the greatest figures in English literature in the 20th century.


Early Life

Born in London, Waugh was the son of a noted editor and publisher, Arthur Waugh, and was brought up in middle class circumstances in London. His only brother was the writer Alec Waugh. He was educated at Lancing College, a minor English public school with a High Church Anglican emphasis and then at Oxford University (Hertford College), which he left in 1924 with a third-class degree. At Oxford, he was known as much for his artwork as his writing, although he also threw himself into a vigorous social scene populated by both aesthetes and nobility, in which one of the vogues was queerness. Waugh had at least two gay affairs during this time, before beginning to date women in the late 1920s. In 1925 he taught at a private school in Wales and claims to have attempted suicide by swimming out to sea (turning back, however, when stung by a jellyfish). He was also dismissed from another teaching post for "drunkenness"

He was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker and worked briefly as a journalist, before he had his first great literary success in 1928 with his first completed novel, Decline and Fall. Other novels about England's "Bright Young Things" followed, and all were well received by both critics and the general public. He entered into a rather brief and unsuccessful marriage in 1929 to the Hon. Evelyn Gardner, who incongruously had the same first name as he. Their marriage was annulled in 1936.

His second marriage, in 1937, to the Roman Catholic Laura Herbert, daughter of Aubrey Herbert, was more successful, lasting for the rest of his life and producing six children.


The Thirties

Particularly in the period between his two marriages, Waugh travelled restlessly and from these experiences came some of the best travel literature in the English language. It is, in its own way, comparable to the best of other travel writing masters such as Patrick Leigh Fermor, D.H. Lawrence and John Steinbeck. A compendium of his best travel writing has been issued under the title When The Going Was Good. His travels took him around the Mediterranean and Red Sea, and on to Spitsbergen, Africa and South America.

In his pre-World War II novels Waugh satirized contemporary English society, especially the aristocracy and the upper middle classes. In later years, his novels were more overtly serious ("The Loved One" notwithstanding), although still witty and full of comic invention.

In 1930 he converted to Roman Catholicism, and his religious ideas are manifest, either explicitly or implicitly, in all of his later work, especially in Brideshead Revisited which, as he himself stated, is an account of the intervention of God's Grace in a troubled family.

World War II

With the advent of World War II, Waugh used "friends in high places", such as Randolph Churchill - son of Winston - to find him a service commission. Though thirty-six years of age with poor eyesight, he was commissioned in the Royal Marines in 1940. Few can have been less suited to command troops. He lacked a common touch. Though personally brave, he did not suffer fools gladly. There was some concern that the men under his command might shoot him instead of the enemy. Promoted to Captain, Waugh found life in the Marines dull.

Waugh participated in the failed attempt to take Dakar from the Vichy French in late 1940. Following a joint exercise with No.8 Commando (Army), he applied to join them and was accepted. Waugh took part in an ill-fated commando raid on the coast of Libya. As special assistant to the famed commando leader, Robert Laycock, Waugh showed conspicuous bravery during the fighting in Crete in 1941, supervising the evacuation of troops while under attack by Stuka dive bombers.

Later, Waugh was placed on extended leave for several years and reassigned to the Royal Horse Guards. During this period he wrote Brideshead Revisited. He was recalled for a military/diplomatic mission to Yugoslavia in 1944 at the request of his old friend Randolph Churchill. He and Churchill narrowly escaped capture/death when the Germans undertook Operation Rösselsprung, and had paratroops and glider borne storm troops attack the Partisan headquarters where they were staying. An outcome was a formidable report detailing Tito's persecution of the clergy. It was "buried" by Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden (who also attempted to discredit Waugh) to save diplomatic embarrassment as Tito was then seen as a required ally of Britain and an official "friend".

Much of Waugh's war experience is reflected in his Sword of Honour Trilogy. This work is one of his finest achievements, showing the author at his best. Some of his portraits are unforgettable, and a few show striking resemblances to noted real life personalities. Many feel that the fire eating officer in the novels, Brig. Ben Ritchie-Hook, was based on Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Carton De Wiart, V.C., a friend of the author's father-in-law. Waugh knew Carton De Wiart somewhat from his club. The fictional commando leader, Tommy Blackhouse, was based on Major-General Sir Robert Laycock, a real life commando leader and friend of Waugh's.

Later Years

The period after the war saw Waugh living with his family in the West Country at his country homes, Piers Court, and from 1956 onwards, at Combe Florey in Somerset, where he lived as a country squire. He bequeathed the latter to his son, the writer and journalist Auberon Waugh. He made his living through writing and became a self-parodying reactionary figure. He was bitterly disappointed when the Roman Catholic Church, which he in part loved for what he perceived as its timelessness, began to adopt modern vernacular liturgy and other changes.

His travels to California yielded The Loved One, a satire on the American funeral industry. Trips to Africa and the Middle East provided background for travel literature.

But, most especially, this was the period when the Sword of Honour trilogy was written.

Waugh put on a lot of weight, and the sleeping pills he took, combined with a heavy intake of alcohol, cigars and little exercise, weakened his health. His writing productivity gradually ran down.

Evelyn Waugh died on 10 April 1966, at the age of 62. His estate was probated at 20,068 pounds sterling. This did not include the value of his lucrative copyrights, which Waugh had put in a trust for his children.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Waugh

spendius, darling. My apologies. I am not that well versed in your writer, I'm afraid. I will do more research shortly as you have piqued my interest.



"Pride is a wonderful terrible thing", no?

Charlie Daniels
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


Charles Edward Daniels (born October 28, 1936 in Wilmington, North Carolina) is an American country music, Southern rock, and jazz singer, fiddler, and guitarist.

Daniels began writing and performing in the 1950s. In 1964, Daniels sold a song "It Hurts Me" to Elvis Presley. Daniels recorded his first solo album, Charlie Daniels, in 1970. His first hit, the novelty song "Uneasy Rider", came off his 1972 second album, Honey in the Rock, and reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1974, Daniels organized the first in a series of Volunteer Jam concerts based in or around Nashville, Tennessee. Except for a three-year gap in the late 1980s, these have continued ever since.

In 1975, he had a top 30 hit as leader of the Charlie Daniels Band with the Southern rock self-identification anthem "The South's Gonna Do It". "Long Haired Country Boy" was also a minor hit in that year.

Daniels won the Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance in 1979 for "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", which reached #3 on the charts.

Subsequent Daniels pop hits included "In America" (#11 in 1980), "The Legend of Wooley Swamp" (#31 in 1980), and "Still in Saigon" (#22 in 1982).

In the late 1980s and 1990s several of Daniels' albums and singles were hits on the country charts. Daniels also released several gospel and Christian records.

Charlie Daniels has never shied away from politics. "The South's Gonna Do It" had a mild message of Southern cultural identity within the Southern rock movement. Daniels was an early supporter of Jimmy Carter's presidential bid and performed at his January 1977 inauguration.

"In America" was a reaction to the 1979-1981 Iran Hostage Crisis; it described a patriotic, united America where "we'll all stick together and you can take that to the bank / That's the cowboys and the hippies and the rebels and the yanks." In contrast, "Still in Saigon" was an effective portrayal of the plight of the American Vietnam veteran ten years after the war; it was part of an early 1980s wave of attention to the subject, which resulted in similar treatments such as Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." and "Shut Out the Light", Billy Joel's "Goodnight Saigon", and somewhat later Steve Earle's "Copperhead Road".

In 1990, Daniels' country hit "Simple Man" seemingly advocated a Biblical form of vigilantism; lines such as "Just take them [rapists, killers, child abusers] out in the swamp / Put 'em on their knees and tie 'em to a stump / Let the rattlers and the bugs and the alligators do the rest," got Daniels considerable media attention and talk show visits.

In 2003, Daniels published an Open Letter to the Hollywood Bunch in defense of George W. Bush's Iraq policy. His 2003 book Ain't No Rag: Freedom, Family, and the Flag contains this letter as well as many other personal statements. During the 2004 presidential campaign, Daniels acknowledged that having never served in the military himself, he did not have the right to criticize John Kerry's service record. [1]

Daniels now resides in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, where the city has named a park after him.

Recently, he has made a cameo appearance along with Larry the Cable Guy, Kid Rock, and Hank Williams, Jr. in Gretchen Wilson's music video for the song "All Jacked Up", whose album will be released at the end of September.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Daniels


Uneasy Rider :: Charlie Daniels Band

Hearts made of stone
Will never break
For the love you have for them
They just won't take
You can ask them please
Please please please break
And all of your love
Is there to take

Yes, hearts of stone
Will cause you pain
Although you love them
They'll stop you just the same
You can ask them please
Please please please break
And all of your love
Is there to take

But they'll say no no no no no no no no no no no no no
Everybody knows
I thought you knew
Hearts made of stone

Yes, hearts of stone
Will cause you pain
Although you love them
They'll stop you just the same
You can ask them please
Please please please break
And all of your love
Is there to take

But they'll say no no no no no no no no no no no no no
Everybody knows
I thought you knew
Hearts made of stone

It's is No1 vice and ruins lives.It ruins those who have it and those around them.Learn to grin sheepishly.

Hoorah! Bob is back with his bios. Thanks, Boston. Need to read those more carefully, I think, but our listeners appreciate your coverage, Bod..er, I mean Bob. <smile>

Dedication song:




Don't throw bouquets at me
Don't please my folks too much
Don't laugh at my jokes too much
People will say we're in love

Don't sigh and gaze at me
Your sighs are so like mine
And your eyes mustn't glow like mine
People will say we're in love





Don't start collecting things
Give me my rose and my glove

Sweetheart,They're suspecting things
People will say we're in love.

Bill Gates
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.



William "Bill" Henry Gates III KBE (b. October 28, 1955), commonly known as Bill Gates, is an American businessman. He is the co-founder, chairman and Chief Software Architect of Microsoft Corporation, the largest software company in the world. According to Forbes magazine, Gates is currently the wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of approximately US$ 50.1 billion.


Early life

Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, to William H. Gates, Sr. and Mary Maxwell Gates. As a child, Gates attended Lakeside School, Seattle's most exclusive prep school, where he was able to develop his programming skills on the school's minicomputer. While in high school, he and Paul Allen founded Traf-o-Data, a company which sold traffic counting systems to state governments, and helped computerize his school's payroll system.

Gates enrolled in Harvard University in 1974, where he met his later business partner Steve Ballmer. During his second year at Harvard, Gates, Paul Allen and Monte Davidoff co-wrote the original Altair BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800, the first commercially successful personal computer. Altair BASIC was inspired by BASIC, and Gates dropped out of Harvard during his third year in order to pursue a career in software development.


Founding Microsoft




After reading the January 1975 issue of Popular Science that demonstrated the Altair 8800, Gates called the creators of the new microcomputer, MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), to inform them that he and others had developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the platform. Allen flew to MITS to unveil the new BASIC system. Allen had never handled an Altair, since Gates had done all of the actual product development, but the demonstration was successful, and resulted in a deal with MITS to buy the rights to Allen's and Gates's BASIC for the Altair platform. At this point, Gates left Harvard, and along with Allen founded Micro-Soft, later renamed as the Microsoft Corporation.

In February 1976, Bill Gates published a polemic, the "Open Letter to Hobbyists", that expressed his frustration over his belief that the majority of people using the software were not paying for it.

On August 12, 1981, after negotiations with Digital Research failed, IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft for a version of CP/M, an early operating system (OS), set to be used for the upcoming IBM Personal Computer (PC). However, Microsoft had no OS at the time, so they purchased a CP/M clone called QDOS ("Quick and Dirty Operating System") from Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products for $56,000, which Microsoft renamed to PC-DOS.

Later, after Compaq successfully cloned the IBM BIOS, the market saw a flood of IBM PC clones. Microsoft was quick to use its position to dominate the home computer operating system market. Microsoft began licensing its OS for use on non-IBM PC clones, and called that version MS-DOS (for Microsoft Disk Operating System). By marketing MS-DOS aggressively to manufacturers of IBM-PC clones, Microsoft went from a small player to one of the major software vendors in the home computer industry.

Microsoft continued to develop operating systems as well as software applications. By the late-1980s, their graphical user interface operating system, Microsoft Windows had begun to make serious headway into the software market. The release of Windows 3.0 in 1990 was a tremendous success, selling around 10 million copies in the first two years and cementing Microsoft dominance in operating systems. (See History of Microsoft Windows for more details)

Microsoft eventually went on to be the largest software company in the world, earning Gates enough money to make him the wealthiest person in the world (according to Forbes Magazine) for several years. Gates served as the CEO of the company until 1998 when Steve Ballmer took the position. Gates continues to serve as a chairman of the board at the company and also as a position he created for himself entitled "Chief Software Architect".

Business practices

Main article: United States v. Microsoft

Under Gates's leadership, Microsoft has frequently been accused of aggressive business practices. In 1998 this would culminate in a lawsuit, United States v. Microsoft, which alleged that Microsoft abused monopoly power in its handling of operating system sales and web browser sales.

Gates was summoned to testify in the case as the chairman of Microsoft. He was called "evasive and nonresponsive" by a source present at a session in which Gates was questioned on his deposition. [1] He argued over the definitions of words such as "compete", "jihad", "concerned", "ask", and "we". [2] BusinessWeek reported, "Early rounds of his deposition show him offering obfuscatory answers and saying 'I don't recall' so many times that even the presiding judge had to chuckle. Worse, many of the technology chief's denials and pleas of ignorance have been directly refuted by prosecutors with snippets of E-mail Gates both sent and received." [3] Intel Vice-President Steven McGeady, called as a witness, quoted Paul Maritz, a senior Microsoft vice president as having stated an intention to "extinguish" and "smother" rival Netscape Communications Corporation and to "cut off Netscape's air supply" by giving away a clone of Netscape's flagship product for free. The Microsoft executive denied the allegations. [4]


Personal life

Gates married Melinda French on January 1, 1994. They have three children, Jennifer Katharine Gates (1996), Rory John Gates (1999) and Phoebe Adele Gates (2002).

Bill Gates lives in a huge earth-sheltered home in the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington in Medina, Washington together with his family. The Gates home, one of the most expensive houses in the world, is a modern 21st century house in the "Pacific Lodge" style, with classic features such as a large private library with a domed reading room. Electronics are used abundantly; visitors are surveyed upon entrance and given a microchip that sends signals throughout the house to adjust temperature and other conditions according to preset user preferences. According to King County public records, as of 2002, the total assessed value of the property (land and house) is $113 million, and the annual property tax is just over $1 million. Also among Gates's private acquisitions is the Codex Leicester, a collection of writings by Leonardo da Vinci which Gates bought for $30.8 million at an auction in 1994.


Philanthropy

Main article: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

With his wife, Gates founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a charitable organization. The foundation's grants have provided funds for college scholarships for under-represented minorities, AIDS prevention, diseases prevalent in the Third World, and other causes. In 2000, the Gates Foundation endowed the University of Cambridge with $210 million for the Gates Cambridge Scholarships. The Foundation has also pledged over $7 billion to its various causes, including $1 billion to the United Negro College Fund; and as of 2005, had an estimated endowment of $27.5 billion.

Critics of Gates note that his charitable giving, while large, does not match the percentage of his income that is typical of people in much lower income groups. Others note that his giving is often to help schools purchase computers, and much of the money goes directly to Microsoft, and back to Gates.

Honors

Gates has received two honorary doctorates, from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden in 2002 and Waseda University in 2005. Gates was also given an Honorary KBE from the United Kingdom in 2005 [5], in addition to having entomologists name the Bill Gates flower fly, Eristalis gatesi, in his honor. [6]


Influence and wealth

Gates has been reported as being among the most influential people in the world, including:

* Listed in the Sunday Times power list in 1999
* Named CEO of the year by Chief Executive Officers magazine in 1994
* Ranked at 28 in the "Top 100 most powerful people in sports" by The Sporting News in 1997
* Ranked number one in the "Top 50 Cyber Elite" by Time in 1998
* Ranked number two in the Upside Elite 100 in 1999
* Included in The Guardian as one of the "Top 100 influential people in media" in 2001

Gates has been number one on the "Forbes 400" list through 1993-2005 and number one on Forbes list of "The World's Richest People" in 1996-2005 except for 1997 when the Sultan of Brunei was included despite Forbes' usual policy of excluding heads of state.

Since 2000, Gates's wealth has declined due to a fall in Microsoft's share price and the multi-billion dollar gifts he has made to his charitable foundations. According to a 2004 Forbes magazine article, Gates has given away over $28 billion to charities over the last few years. He is the wealthiest person even when including heads of state whose wealth is tied to their position (although the standard Forbes list does not include heads of state, Forbes has released separate lists for the estimated wealth of heads of state; when the lists are combined, Bill Gates still remains the world's wealthiest person).


Gates in popular culture

Main article: List of portrayals and references of Bill Gates

Bill Gates has been the subject of numerous parodies in film, television, and video games, often serving as an archetype for fictional megalomaniacal leaders of powerful corporations. Examples include The Simpsons episode "Das Bus" and the films Tomorrow Never Dies and Antitrust. Alternatively, but less frequently, these references portray a hacker genius. Gates is often characterized as the quintessential example of a super-intelligent "nerd" with immense power. This has in turn led to pop culture stereotypes of Gates as a tyrant or evil genius, often resorting to ruthless (and crude) business techniques. Several films and television shows have portrayed either the real Bill Gates or a fictionalized version of him, often according to these clichés.

Trivia

On February 4, 1998, while on a visit to Brussels, Gates had a cream pie thrown at his face by Noël Godin, a Belgian agitator.[7]

In 1985, Gates posed for publicity photos while reclining on his desk. On January 16, 2005 these photos were mistakenly attributed to Teen Beat magazine by a blogger, inciting their circulation on the internet.[8]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_gates

Well, I interrupted the bio man again, listeners. Sorry, Bob. Julia Roberts is an interesting celeb. Never been too fond of her, however. Don't ask, cause I don't know why.

Missed our spendius' remark as well. I guess pride goeth before the ovine bunch, no?<smile>

Hmmmm. We haven't heard from the other Europeans today. Hope all is well in Greenwich and other places.