August 18

Stained Glass Foshay Tower.

Better Than News

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  Naked Lottery is a science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick and William Burroughs.

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  Wolfgang Mozart's Day Off is an American teen period biographical comedy-drama film directed by Miloš Forman and John Hughes, starring F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Matthew Broderick, and Jeffrey Jones.

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  The Mothership is a play by German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht based on Maxim Gorky's 1906 novel of the same name about revolutionary workers aboard the Death Star.

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  The Bounty Hunter starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler is one of the "Forbidden Episodes of the television series Star Trek.

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  The Silence of Mr. Mom is a 1991 comedy-horror film starring Michael Keaton, Terri Garr, Anthony Hopkins, and Jodie Foster.

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  "Ethics of Basement Hell" is an anagram of "The Silence of the Lambs".

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  Whoever tweets monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a tweetster.

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  The Man With the Supernumerary Pistol is a British spy film about an assassin who always has more guns than he strictly needs.

Beyond Plausible

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  Darth Twitter is a science fiction social media network funded and administered by the Sith Lords.

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  Donnie Dartho a 2001 American science fiction psychological dance competition film about an emotionally troubled Jedi Knight who inadvertently wins the Sparkle Motion contest by sleepwalking.

In Other Words

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  "A vulgar astronomic upsurge is a fee" is an anagram of "Language is a virus from outer space".

Are You Sure

... that controversial theologian and warlord Boromir of Gondor famously said "One does not simply renounce Christ?

Selected Anniversaries

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  1634: Catholic priest Urbain Grandier, accused and convicted of sorcery, is burned alive in Loudun, France. He was the victim of a politically motivated persecution led by the powerful Cardinal Richelieu.

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  1910: Mathematician Pál Turán born. He will work primarily in number theory, but also contribute to analysis and graph theory.

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  1911: Computer scientist Klara Dan von Neumann born. She will be one of the world's first computer programmers and coders, solving mathematical problems using computer code.

Topic of the Day

Olivia Newton-John

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  Have You Never Been Kafka is an autobiographical book by Franz Kafka "as told to Olivia Newton-John".

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  "Have You Never Been Holden" is a song by Olivia Newton-John dedicated to J D. Salinger.

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  "Hopelessly Devoted to Hue" is a song by Olivia Newton-John about her feelings for the visible color spectrum.