Tag: happy birthday

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Awesomeness Featured

Happy Birthday Madiba!

An venerable hero of South Africa turns 92 years old today. Born in 1918 in Umtata, Nelson Mandela grew into politics and his anti-apartheid activites earned him a severe jail sentence. Upon his release in 1990 after 27 years in prison, Mandela made a speech to the nation, saying:

I stand here before you not as a prophet but as a humble servant of you, the people. Your tireless and heroic sacrifices have made it possible for me to be here today. I therefore place the remaining years of my life in your hands.

In 1993 Mandela received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts at peace and reconciliation and in 1994, South African went from apartheid to majority rule with Mandela serving as president of the country for five years.

Today is Mandela Day. Not only do we celebrate the life and spirit of a hero to this country, but also the potential that people have to make a change in this world.

Happy Birthday Madiba! We wish you all the best for the future. I’m not so good with words so I decided to use my equally mediocre Photoshop skills to make a poster of the great man, inspired by Shepard Fairey’s Obama “Hope” poster. The portrait of Madiba was taken by Swedish photographer Hans Gedda.

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Site Announcements

Onelargeprawn Turns One!

My memory is fucking terrible.

I could have sworn today is our blog’s one year anniversary, but it turns out that it was yesterday. This time slip doesn’t surprise me, I have been guilty of forgetting quite a few things this year. Casting that discretion aside, I would like to wish the blog a happy belated birthday!

Unfortunately I don’t have any any presents to give you, our dear readers, except my heart-felt thanks for visiting (regularly or otherwise) and interacting with us. From the very first and brief post a year ago, I like to think my writing has gotten better – the nature of my office job has me summarizing content down into its most succinct form, and that habit has proved hard to break, but blogging is coming a little easier to me now.

Of course I am not the only one who brings you the content on the blog, and I’d like to thank the others misfit writers for their contributions:

  • The devil’s handmaiden and my most wonderful wife, Lucy Furr.
  • Good friend and generally off-kilter muso, Vicky Plum.
  • The mod-master from Pretoria, Ett.
  • Frequent commenter and bunny chow expert, Macross.

Right, the weather in Cape Town is fantastic, and I want to be outside, smoking at the very least. As abrupt endings go, this should be a good spot. Thanks once again for supporting Onelargeprawn!

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History Risqué Site Announcements

Birthday Girls & Boys – 15th January

2008-04-dr-martin-luther-king-jr

Happy Birthday and take it easy this Pooza Thursday!

Also born on the 15th of January are:

  • 1622 – Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, also known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature.
  • 1816 – Marie-Fortunée Lafarge, was a Frenchwoman who was convicted of murdering her husband by arsenic poisoning in 1840. Her case became notable, because it was one of the first trials to be followed by the public through daily newspaper reports, and because she was the first person convicted largely on direct forensic toxicological evidence.
  • 1906 – Aristotle Onassis, was one of the prominent shipping magnates of the 20th century.He also traded Turkish tabacco into Europe and America making millions, and founded Greece’s national airline,Olympic Airlines. To finance his ships he used a method that he, in his own words, described as utilizing the formula OPM (other people’s money). He is perhaps most well know for being married to Jacqueline Kennedy. He was also previously married to opera dive Maria Callas. A great believer in conspicuous opulence and decadence, his yacht the Christina O was one of the largest private yachts ever, and had barstools upholstered in the foreskins of Minke whales.
  • 1909 – Jean Bugatti, German-born automobile designer who designed amazing three bodies for the beautiful Bugatti Type 57. he also designed the bodies of the Ventoux, Stelvio, and Atalante models.
  • 1929 – Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., African American clergyman, civil rights icon, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He is best known for his “I have a dream” speech.
  • 1941 – Captain Beefheart, American musician and visual artist. With his band, The Magic Band, he sung and played the harmonica. His compositions are characterized by their odd mixtures of shifting time signatures and by their surreal lyrics. He is now retired from music and has become a painter.
  • 1948 – Ronnie Van Zant, was the lead vocalist, primary lyricist, and a founding member of the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. He was killed in an aircrash in 1977.
  • 1965 – Adam Jones, is a three time Grammy Award-winning musician and visual artist, best known for his work as guitarist with the band Tool. Jones was rated the 75th Greatest Guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine and placed 9th in Guitar World’s Top 100 Greatest Heavy metal Guitarists. He is also credited for most of Tool’s music videos.
  • 1972 – Kobe Tai, is a former pornographic actress of Taiwanese and Japanese heritage.She entered the adult film industry at the age of around 24, and appeared in over 70 films between 1996 and 2003. In addition to her roles in adult films, Tai appeared in the mainstream movie Very Bad Things as a stripper who was accidentally killed at a bachelor party. Tai also did background vocals for Marilyn Manson’s song, “New Model No. 15”, on the album Mechanical Animals.

Thanks for the info Wikipedia.

Let me know if you’d like me to add a friend, family member or little ol’ you to our daily birthday lists of (famous) people. Mail me names, years of birth, and what makes you or them famous.

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History Site Announcements

Birthday Girls & Boys – 14th January

antonyandcleopatracoin

Mid-week! Ya-fracking-hoo! HAPPY BIRTHDAY y’all. Hope you have a super day and remember it’s only 3 more days til the freaking weekend.

Also born on the 14th of January are:

  • 83 BC – Marcus Antonius aka Mark Anthony, Roman politician and General, best pals with Julius Caesar, lover of Queen Cleopatra of Egypt. He famously committed suicide and was shortly followed into the afterlife by Cleopatra. Their love story was immortalised by Shakespeare.
  • 1741 – Benedict Arnold, accomplished American Continental Army General and turncoat/traitor during the American Revolutionary War.
  • 1861 – Mehmed VI, last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, reigning from 1918 to 1922
  • 1875 – Albert Schweitzer, Alsatian, physician, Nobel laureate, theologian, musician, philosopher, and one of colonialisms harshest critics. Famous for founding a free hospital in rural Gabon at a time when most Europeans were only interested in exploiting Africa.
  • 1904 – Sir Cecil Beaton, English fashion and portrait photographer, and Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer for films and theatre. Beaton worked as a staff photographer for Vanity Fair and Vogue , and in addition photographed many members of European royalty and Hollywood celebrities. Royal family. He was a raving bi-sexual but tended towards boys rather than girls.
  • 1941 – Faye Dunaway, critically acclaimed American actress of Bonnie and Clyde, Chinatown, and Network fame. She received Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for her performances in Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown, before winning the category with her 1976 performance in Network.
  • 1946 – Harold Shipman, English general practitioner (i.e. a doctor) and convicted serial killer. He is the most prolific known serial killer in British history. 236 murders are ascribed to him, though the real number may be much higher, perhaps over 450.
  • 1954 – “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, American professional wrestler, inventor of the “American patriot” and kidney cancer survivor. He is currently the oldest active wrestler in WWE.
  • 1963 – Steven Soderbergh, American film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and Academy Award-winning director. Soderbergh launched his career with the film Sex, Lies and Videotape, but is better known for directing Erin Brokovich, Traffic, and the Ocean’s Eleven franchise.
  • 1968 – James Todd Smith aka LL Cool J, American rapper and actor. LL Cool J stands for “Ladies Love Cool James”. Can you believe that this great big yummy hunk of rapping manliness spent most of his youth singing in the church choir, participating in the Boy Scouts, and delivering newspapers?
  • 1969 – David Grohl, American drummer for the brilliant and all too short lived grunge band Nirava, and frontman songwriter for the almost as good (as Nirvana) Foo Fighters.

Thanks for the info Wikipedia.

Let me know if you’d like me to add a friend, family member or little ol’ you to our daily birthday lists of (famous) people. Mail me names, years of birth, and what makes you or them famous.

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History Site Announcements

Birthday Girls & Boys – 13th January

orlando bloom

Hiya and HAPPY BIRTHDAY girls, boys & others. Have a grand day and I hope you don’t have to spend time with a bunch of feck arses like I do.

Also born on the 13th of January are:

  • 1777 – Elisa Bonaparte, younger sister of Napoleon I of France. Apparently she had a sharp tongue and used to tell Napoleon off quite a bit which caused their relationship to be strained at times, nevertheless he made her the Grand Duchess of Tuscany when he annexed it in 1807.
  • 1884 – Sophie Tucker, Russian-born performer who played piano and sang burlesque and vaudeville tunes, at first in blackface (i.e. like a “black sambo”). She said that theatre managers insisted on this blacked up disguise because she was “too fat and ugly” for audiences to endure otherwise. Her sense of humour was legendary, and she sang songs that acknowledged her heft, such as “Nobody Loves a Fat Girl, But Oh How a Fat Girl Can Love”. Her comedic style has influenced some of Hollywood’s funniest women including Mae West, Joan Rivers, Roseanne Barr, and Bette Midler.
  • 1898 – Kai Munk, Danish playwright, Lutheran pastor, and WWII martyr. Munk criticised Hitler and Mussolini’s persecution of Jews during WWII in a Danish newspaper, he was subsequently arrested and assassinated by the Gestapo.
  • 1927 – Sydney Brenner, South African born molecular biologist, huge fan of the soil round worm, and 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine co-laureate.
  • 1935 – Mauro Forghieri, Italian automotive and mechanical engineer who designed the Ferrari 312 series. While he was Technical Director of Ferrari’s racing department, Ferrari won the driver’s F1 world championship title four times, with John Surtees (1964), Niki Lauda (1975 and 1977), and Jody Scheckter (1979). Ferrari also won the builder’s F1 world championship title eight times.
  • 1949 – Rakesh Sharma, Squadron Leader in the Indian Air Force, first Indian and 138th man to visit space.
  • 1961 – Julia Louis-Dreyfus, American actress, and daughter of a writer and a billionaire business executive. Julia started out her TV career by performing on Saturday Night Live from 1982 to 1985. She then went on to make a lot of money acting as Elaine on Seinfeld from 1990 to 1998. According to Jerry Seinfeld “She cracks you up without breaking your nuts” – apparently she can do the same thing to a peanut M&M.
  • 1977 – Orlando Bloom, English actor, Buddhist, tree hugger, dog rescuer, underwear model dater, Obama supporter. He is most well known for his roles as immortal elf-prince Legolas in The Lord of the Rings and blacksmith Will Turner in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. He was equally limp-wristed Troy and Elizabethtown, and only slightly better in Kingdom of Heaven. His is cute though.

Thanks for the info Wikipedia.

Let me know if you’d like me to add a friend, family member or little ol’ you to our daily birthday lists of (famous) people. Mail me names, years of birth, and what makes you or them famous.

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History Site Announcements

Birthday Girls & Boys – 12th January

PW

Hello and welcome to a hard boiled wonderland um I mean a whole new week. If today is your birthday, I hope that it’s a really good, stress-free Monday, either that, or you’re still on holiday. You lucky bastards. You share your birthday with some very famous people including our own Groot Krokodil, transcendental guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and my favourite Japanese author Haruki Murakami.

Also born on the 12th of January are:

  • 1856 – John Singer Sargent, American portrait artist
  • 1876 – Jack London, American author of White Fang, Call of the Wild, and other rugged stories of life in American frontier states.
  • 1893 – Hermann Göring, German Nazi official, the “heir” to Hitler’s Germany, and commander of the formidable Luftwaffe.
  • 1916 – Pieter Willem Botha, farm boy, Boer commando, South African prime minister and executive state president, all around ring-wing Afrikaner nationalist and Nazi sympathizer. He also refused to testify at the TRC.
  • 1917 – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian spiritualist and teacher of transcendental meditation to the Beatles, and countless numbers of hippy students in India, China, USA, Mexico, and the UK.
  • 1923 – Ira Hayes, Pima Native American, US Marine during WWII, and one of six United States service men immortalized in the iconic photograph of the flag raising on Iwo Jima.
  • 1949 – Haruki Murakami, Japanese author of the incredibly profound The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (one of the most amazing books I have ever read), and many other wonderful books.
  • 1951 – Kirstie Alley, fat again, thin again, fat again American actress.
  • 1965 – Rob Zombie or Robert Bartleh Cummings, American heavy metal musician, founder of White Zombie, successful solo artist, and director of films such as House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects.
  • 1966 – Olivier Martinez, sexy (ish) French actor, and on again, off again lover of Kylie Minogue.
  • 1968 – Heather Mills, painful ex-wife of the even more painful (and least talented Beatle) Paul McCartney.

Thanks for the info Wikipedia.

Let me know if you’d like me to add a friend, family member or little ol’ you to our daily birthday lists of (famous) people. Mail me names, years of birth, and what makes you or them famous.

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History Site Announcements

Birthday Girls & Boys – 11th January

Happy Birthday Heskey
Happy Birthday Heskey
Happy Birthday Heskey

Good Morning and HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to all wonderful Readers born on the 11th January.

Also born on the 11th of January are:
1503 – Parmigianino, Italian artist
1757 – Samuel Bentham, English mechanical engineer and designer of the first arched iron-built bridge over the Thames. He also designer many novel items such as an amphibious vessels for Russia’s infamous Tsarina Catherine the Great.
1895 – Laurens Hammond, American inventor of the Hammond organ
1901 – Kwon Ki-ok, was the first Korean female aviator, as well as being the first female pilot in China.
1903 – Alan Paton, South African liberal political activist and author of the acclaimed novel Cry the Beloved Country.
1921 – Gory Guerrero, professional wrestler and father of the more famous and now deceased Eddie.
1942 – Clarence Clemons, American musician best known as the saxophonist in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.
1971 – Mary J. Blige, American singer
1972 – Amanda Peet, American actress
1978 – Emile Heskey, English footballer
1981 – Jamelia, English singer

Thanks for the info Wikipedia.

Let me know if you’d like me to add a friend, family member or little ol’ you to our daily birthday lists of (famous) people. Mail me names, years of birth, and what makes you or them famous.

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History Risqué Site Announcements

Birthday Girls & Boys – 10th January

anenomies

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to all born on the 10th of January. Hope that you have an amazing day filled with sunshine, and good times.

Also born on the 10th of January are:

1883 – Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoi, Russian writer
1893 – Albert Jacka, Australian soldier, first Australian World War I Victoria Cross winner
1936 – Al Goldstein, American publisher and pornographer
1944 – Rory Byrne, South African racing car designer
1944 – Frank Sinatra, Jr., American singer
1945 – Rod Stewart, Scottish singer
1949 – George Foreman, American boxer
1949 – Linda Lovelace, American pornographic actress
1964 – Brad Roberts, Canadian singer (Crash Test Dummies)
1974 – Jemaine Clement, half of awesome comedic duo from New Zealand – Flight of the Conchords

Thanks for the info Wikipedia.

Let me know if you’d like me to add a friend, family member or little ol’ you to our daily birthday lists of (famous) people. Mail me names, years of birth, and what makes you or them famous.

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Cartoons & Comics History Site Announcements Useful/Useless Info

Birthday Girls & Boys – 9th January

live-strong

More cool cartoons at Toothpaste For Dinner.

If today is your birthday, we at onelargeprawn wish you a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY. And it’s on a Friday – you lucky so-and-so – hope you got cool pressies and cake and beer and tequila and lots of other good stuff (and not a Lance Armstrong cancer bracelet).

Also born on this day were:

1908 – Simone de Beauvoir, French author
1913 – Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States
1929 – Dorothea Puente, American serial killer
1933 – Wilbur Smith, Zambian-British novelist
1941 – Joan Baez, American singer and activist
1944 – Jimmy Page, British musician and producer (Led Zeppelin)
1967 – Dave Matthews, South African singer and musician
1975 – Kimberley Ann Scott Mathers, former wife of Eminem
1982 – Kate Middleton, girlfriend of Prince William of Wales

Thanks for the info Wikipedia.

Let me know if you’d like me to add a friend, family member or little ol’ you to our daily birthday lists of (famous) people.

Mail me names, years of birth, and what makes you or them famous.