SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR HALLOWE'EN

HAPPY

HALLOWE'EN

STEPHEN KING

THE BOLSHOI THEATER RE-OPENS

THE BOL'SHOI THEN

THE BOLSHOI THEATER

MOSCOW, THE USSR, 1984

& NOW IT HAS HAD A GRAND RE-OPENING

AFTER "SIX YEARS" AND "$680 MILLION"

For photographs of the newly refurbished theater,

see here and here and here and here and here

For more of the story, see here and here and here

WILLIAM GUINDON, b. October 29, 1916

REV. WILLIAM G. GUINDON, S.J.

October 29, 1916-October 4, 2006

FATHER WILLIAM GUINDON

Published in BOSTON MAGAZINE

January 1972

HARVARD FOUNDED 375 YEARS AGO

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

FOUNDED

October 28, 1636

PRESIDENTS BOK, CONANT, PUSEY (L-R)

TOGETHER, THESE THREE HARVARD PRESIDENTS

REPRESENT ALMOST SIX DECADES

OF HARVARD'S 375 YEARS

JAMES BRYANT CONANT, 23rd President, 1933-1953

NATHAN MARSH PUSEY, 24th President, 1953-1971

DEREK CURTIS BOK, 25th President, 1971-1991 &

Interim President, 2006-2007

LUIZ INÁCIO LULA DA SILVA IS SIXTY-SIX

LUIZ INÁCIO LULA DA SILVA

b. October 27, 1945

"LULA"

ON THE WORLD STAGE

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva served as president of Brazil from 2003-2010 (constitutionally limited to only two successive terms). Born poor, he came up through the labor ranks and helped found the Workers' Party ("Partido dos Trabalhadores"), gained a seat in the Chamber of Deputies, then persisted until he won the presidency on his fourth try. It is said that he either 1) adopted a more pragmatic platform or 2) made compromises with certain right wing elements on that fourth, successful try, but still managed to enact social programs "which benefit tens of millions of Brazilians," and help make Brazil more of a player on the international stage.

HILLARY CLINTON TURNS *SIXTY-FOUR* (Cue the Beatles)

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON

b. October 26, 1947

HILLARY CLINTON

Mme. Secretary

More here and here

State Department Biography here

The Beatles' "Sixty-Four" here and here

DAVE COWENS TURNS SIXTY-THREE

BASKETBALL

HALL OF FAMER

DAVID WILLIAM COWENS

b. October 25, 1948

DAVE COWENS

in his BOSTON CELTIC years

Photographed for BOSTON Magazine

From the BOSTON Magazine article: Cowens "drives around in a sturdy International Harvester wagon, which is good for negotiating the dirt road at the house he rents in Weston, and for doing work in the summer at the farm he owns with his family in Kentucky. A graduate of the School of Social Science at Florida State with a major in criminology, he's in touch with the Suffolk County House of Correction to see if he can help there."

Cowens was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991; from the biography there:

"What 6-foot-9 center Dave Cowens lacked in size he made up for with an aggressive desire to win. Cowens played aggressively and with great passion. ... The 'Redhead' didn't begin playing basketball until his junior year in high school, but he still earned himself a scholarship to Florida State University. ... Cowens shared the NBA Rookie-of-the-Year Award with Portland's Geoff Petrie in 1971.... During his entire eleven-year NBA career, he played all-out and with intensity at both ends of the court. Cowens was a member of the Celtics' 1974 and 1976 NBA championship teams."

From the NBA Legends profile: "The gritty and hard-nosed play of Celtics legend Dave Cowens earned him a place in the Hall of Fame."

PAUL VOLCKER IN THE NEWS -- AGAIN

THE VOLCKER RULE

IS IN THE NEWS

AGAIN

PAUL VOLCKER

AS CHAIR OF

THE FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD

Published in the February 20, 1984, issue of

BUSINESS WEEK (p. 28)

Volcker's time as Fed Chair seems to grow brighter as that of his two immediate successors, Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernacke, becomes more problematic, and Volcker is still around to enjoy it. Having supported Senator Obama at a time when the Illinois Democrat did not have much of a financial track record, he might have hoped for a substantive response to his insights, and perhaps even a substantive role in the new presidential administration. One way or another -- Obama's weaknesses or others' cleverness (see here and here) -- Volcker failed to prevail. His compensation was The Volcker Rule (handy for symbolic purposes for President Obama too).

Now that the Rule has been embodied in a 298-page piece of legislation, and the banks are starting to protest against the regulations it seeks to impose, Paul Volcker has spoken out. Some of the coverage of what the former Fed Chair is advocating, and the pushback, can be found here and here and here. There is also a lot of the history to be found in Ron Suskind's new book, CONFIDENCE MEN (Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President).

JOHN HEINZ b. October 23, 1938

HENRY JOHN HEINZ III

October 23, 1938-April 4, 1991

SENATOR

H. JOHN HEINZ III (R-PA)

Photograph published in the May 23, 1983, issue of

BUSINESS WEEK (p. 44)

The late Senator Heinz's Congressional biography is to be found here; the website in his memory is here. A bit about his widow, now Teresa Heinz Kerry, is here.

"SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE A MOTHERLESS CHILD"

SOMETIMES

I FEEL

LIKE A

MOTHERLESS CHILD

NIKITA MIKHALKOV WINS AN OSCAR NOMINATION AND TURNS SIXTY-SIX

NIKITA SERGEYEVICH

MIKHALKOV-KONCHALOVSKY

b. October 21, 1945

NIKITA MIKHALKOV

PHOTOGRAPHED IN MOSCOW IN 1999

WHEN THE BARBER OF SIBERIA

WAS BEING PREMIERED

AND MIKHALKOV WAS

SAID TO BE THINKING OF RUNNING

FOR PRESIDENT

(He did not.)

BURNT BY THE SUN won an Oscar for filmmaker Mikhalkov in 1994. The sequel, BURNT BY THE SUN: THE CITADEL, has been nominated for the 2012 foreign-language film Oscar, igniting, it is said by Variety, "a storm of controversy" in the Russian film industry (on the grounds the movie was a critical and commercial flop).

It was suggested that Mikhalkov should withdraw the movie from consideration.

He did not.

HE GUOQIANG TURNS SIXTY-EIGHT THIS MONTH

HE GUOQIANG

b. October 1943

HE GUOQIANG

#8 OUT OF NINE IN THE RULING

CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY HIERARCHY

(POLITBURO STANDING COMMITTEE)

CHAIR, CENTRAL DISCIPLINE INSPECTION COMMITTEE

THE ANTI-CORRUPTION "CZAR"

ROBERT STRAUSS TURNS NINETY-THREE TODAY

ROBERT S. STRAUSS

b. October 19, 1918

BOB STRAUSS

IN HIS HOTEL SUITE

AT THE 1980 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

NEW YORK CITY

Photograph published in the August 25, 1980, issue of

BUSINESS WEEK (p. 28)

Robert S. Strauss has been "Counselor" to presidents both Democratic and Republican over the course of a long career that has seen him in official positions as diverse as Special Trade Representative for Jimmy Carter and the last U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union (and the first Ambassador to Russia) for George Bush. A long and colorful reminiscence of the arc of his career up to 2003 can be found here.

FRANK CARLUCCI TURNS EIGHTY-ONE TODAY

FRANK CHARLES CARLUCCI III

b. October 18, 1930

FRANK CARLUCCI

ON THE HILL

IN THE REAGAN ERA

{details to follow}

ANOTHER POSTING FROM THE PAST: A PARIS GENDARME

BACK IN

THE DAY

GENDARME

PARIS, FRANCE

JUVENILIA

RIDING THE RAILS, BACK IN THE DAY

TRAINING

IN GERMANY

BACK IN THE

DAY

FROM GERMANY

TO HOLLAND

More

JUVENILIA

ORCHIDS FOR SATURDAY NIGHT

IT IS

SATURDAY NIGHT

ORCHIDS

FOR

A

GRACE NOTE

AL GORE WINS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE Four Years Ago

AL GORE & THE

INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL

ON CLIMATE CHANGE WIN

THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

October 12, 2007

REP. ALBERT A. GORE, JR. (D-TN)

Photograph published in the October 13, 1982, issue

of CHEMICAL WEEK (p. 40)

Got to give the man credit for consistency on this ('The child is father to the man'?): Gore in 1982 was said by CHEMICAL WEEK to be "widely regarded as one of the nation's most powerful legislators on matters affecting the chemical industry, such as ecology and product safety. And as an aggressive young congressman with a strong commitment to environmental and consumer causes, he is seen by many chemical executives as a man whose star they least wish to see rise."

Twenty-five years later he won the Nobel Peace Prize (jointly with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC]) "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."

NOBEL PRIZE CITATION here

Congressional Biography here

On the other hand (Bush v. Gore et al.) here

DONALD TSANG TURNS SIXTY-SEVEN

SIR DONALD TSANG

b. October 7, 1944

DONALD TSANG YAM-KUEN

HONG KONG CHIEF EXECUTIVE

For more on the leader of Hong Kong, see here

SUNSET ON THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER YAN: CHINA THEN

CROSSING THE BRIDGE

ON THE RIVER YAN

AT SUNSET

YAN'AN, CHINA, 1981

TERESA KERRY TURNS SEVENTY-THREE

TERESA HEINZ KERRY

b. October 5, 1938

MICHAEL J. FOX & TERESA HEINZ KERRY

PHOTOGRAPHED AT THE 2004

DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

ON DUELING TVs

Teresa Heinz Kerry is a philanthropist, the wife of one Senator (and Democratic presidential nominee), John F. Kerry, and the widow of another (Republican) Senator, John Heinz.