Born on this day – Gordon Douglas:

Gordon Douglas

Director

Actor

Writer

December 15, 1907 – September 29, 1993

Born on this day – Joseph “Joe” MacDonald:

Joseph “Joe” MacDonald

Cinematographer

Actor

December 15, 1906 – May 26, 1968

Credits:

40 Pounds of Trouble (1962); 6-18-67 (1967); A Guide for the Married Man (1967); A Hatful of Rain (1957); Adorable (1933); All Men Are Enemies (1934); Alvarez Kelly (1966); Arizona (1940); As Young as You Feel (1951); Behind Green Lights (1946); Bigger Than Life (1956); Blindfold (1966); Broken Lance (1954); Call Northside 777 (1948); Captain Eddie (1945); Charlie Chan in Rio (1941); Dante's Inferno (1935); Down to the Sea in Ships (1949); Five Fingers (1959–1960); Flight from Ashiya (1964); Fourteen Hours (1951); Hat Check Girl (1932); Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence (1939); Hell and High Water (1954); Hilda Crane (1956); House of Bamboo (1955); How to Marry a Millionaire (1953); In the Meantime, Darling (1944); Invitation to a Gunfighter (1964); It Happens Every Spring (1949); Kings of the Sun (1963); Little Tokyo, U.S.A. (1942); Mackenna's Gold (1969); Mirage (1965); Moss Rose (1947); My Darling Clementine (1946); Niagara (1953); O. Henry's Full House (1952); On the Threshold of Space (1956); Panic in the Streets (1950); Pepe (1960); Pickup on South Street (1953); Pinky (1949); Professional Soldier (1935); Quiet Please: Murder (1942); Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1932); Rio Conchos (1964); Roger Touhy, Gangster (1944); Romance of the Rio Grande (1940); Rosa de Francia (1935); Sailor's Luck (1933); Second Hand Wife (1933); She Was a Lady (1934); Shock (1946); Sob Sister (1931); Stella (1950); Sunday Dinner for a Soldier (1944); Taras Bulba (1962); Te quiero con locura (1935); Teenage Rebel (1956); Ten North Frederick (1958); That Other Woman (1942); The Big Noise (1944); The Big Stampede (1932); The Carpetbaggers (1964); The Dark Corner (1946); The Devil's in Love (1933); The Fiend Who Walked the West (1958); The Gallant Hours (1960); The Last Time I Saw Archie (1961); The List of Adrian Messenger (1963); The Man Who Wouldn't Die (1942); The New Venezuela (1954); The Postman Didn't Ring (1942); The Racers (1955); The Reward (1965); The Sand Pebbles (1966); The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952); The Street with No Name (1948); The True Story of Jesse James (1957); The View from Pompey's Head (1955); The Young Lions (1958); Thin Ice (1937); Titanic (1953); Too Busy to Work (1932); Viva Zapata! (1952); Walk on the Wild Side (1962); Warlock (1959); Western Union (1941); What Price Glory (1952); Where Love Has Gone (1964); White Witch Doctor (1953); Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957); Wintertime (1943); Woman's World (1954); Yellow Sky (1948); You're in the Navy Now (1951).

Born on this day – Gail Bonney:

Gail Bonney

Actress

December 15, 1901 – December 7, 1984

Credits:

Delta House (1979); Project U.F.O. (1978); The Six Million Dollar Man (1977); Quincy M.E. (1977); Kingston: Confidential (1976); Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969–1976); Death Scream (1975); Lincoln (1975); Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1975); Lucas Tanner (1974); Planet of the Apes (1974); Barnaby Jones (1974); Herbie Rides Again (1974); Doc Elliot (1974); Emergency! (1973); My Darling Daughters' Anniversary (1973); Gunsmoke (1962–1973); he Devil's Daughter (1973); The Bold Ones: The New Doctors (1972–1973); Get to Know Your Rabbit (1972); Night Gallery (1971); The Smith Family (1971); The Late Liz (1971); Ironside (1967–1971); The Young Lawyers (1971); The Bold Ones: The Senator (1970); That Girl (1970); Pieces of Dreams (1970); R.P.M. (1970); The Name of the Game (1968–1970); My Three Sons (1965–1970); Blondie (1969); The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969); Mannix (1968); Something for a Lonely Man (1968); Mod Squad (1968); Here's Lucy (1968); Rosemary's Baby (1968); It Takes a Thief (1968); The Virginian (1964–1968); I Spy (1968); Dragnet 1967 (1967–1968); The Beverly Hillbillies (1967); The Big Valley (1967); Star Trek (1967); Tammy and the Millionaire (1967); The Road West (1966); Petticoat Junction (1965–1966); Pistols 'n' Petticoats (1966);  Fine Madness (1966); Run for Your Life (1966); My Brother the Angel (1965); Convoy (1965); Green Acres (1965); Tammy (1965); Cat Ballou (1965); The Addams Family (1965); The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962–1965); The Lucy Show (1965); Wagon Train (1959–1965); Burke's Law (1964); Bonanza (1960–1964); The Jack Benny Program (1957–1964); Arrest and Trial (1963); Mary, Mary (1963); Glynis (1963); Going My Way (1963); The Dakotas (1963); Days of Wine and Roses (1962); Ben Casey (1962); Gypsy (1962); Tales of Wells Fargo (1958–1962); Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1959–1962); General Electric Theater (1956–1962); Rome Adventure (1962); Lawman (1961–1962); Rawhide (1962); Checkmate (1962); Maverick (1960–1961); 87th Precinct (1961); Leave It to Beaver (1961); The Untouchables (1961); Pete and Gladys (1961); Whispering Smith (1961); Angel (1961); Hawaiian Eye (1961); Bronco (1961); Lock Up (1961); Dante (1960); Bachelor Father (1960); Markham (1959–1960); Tate (1960); Inherit the Wind (1960); Bells Are Ringing (1960); Perry Mason (1957–1960); One Step Beyond (1960); Johnny Midnight (1960); The DuPont Show with June Allyson (1959–1960); Death Valley Days (1954–1960); Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960); Laramie (1960); Riverboat (1959); Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1959); M Squad (1959); The Deputy (1959); The Tingler (1959); Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1959); The Perfect Furlough (1958); Home Before Dark (1958); Bell Book and Candle (1958); The Last Hurrah (1958); Shirley Temple's Storybook (1958); 77 Sunset Strip (1958); Flying Saucer Daffy (1958); Too Much, Too Soon (1958); Highway Patrol (1958); The Restless Gun (1958); Sky King (1958); Going Steady (1958); The World Was His Jury (1958); The Female Animal (1958); Studio 57 (1957); Pal Joey (1957); The Mickey Mouse Club (1957); The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Ghost Farm (1957); The Careless Years (1957); The Loretta Young Show (1953–1957); Lux Video Theatre (1957); Dragnet (1957); Crime of Passion (1956); The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1955); The Opposite Sex (1956); Written on the Wind (1956); The Best Things in Life Are Free (1956); Bigger Than Life (1956); Red Sundown (1956); December Bride (1955–1956); The Killer Is Loose (1956); The People's Choice (1956); Come Next Spring (1956); Climax! (1955); The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1953–1955); The Millionaire (1955); Our Miss Brooks (1955); Not as a Stranger (1955); Ain't Misbehavin' (1955); The Mickey Rooney Show (1955); The Glass Slipper (1955); It's a Great Life (1955); I Led 3 Lives (1954); Space Patrol (1954); Deep in My Heart (1954); The Donald O'Connor Show (1954); Magnificent Obsession (1954); The Red Skelton Hour (1954); Tooting Tooters (1954); Dream Wife (1953); So You Want a Television Set (1953); It Happens Every Thursday (1953); The Ford Television Theatre (1953); The Lady Wants Mink (1953); The Blue Gardenia (1953); Schlitz Playhouse (1953); Biff Baker, U.S.A. (1953); The Cisco Kid (1953); The Member of the Wedding (1952); Million Dollar Mermaid (1952); Because of You (1952); Bonzo Goes to College (1952); Assignment: Paris (1952); Carrie (1952); Gobs and Gals (1952); My Son John (1952); Singin' in the Rain (1952); The Colgate Comedy Hour (1952); The Sniper (1952); Flesh and Fury (1952); Love Is Better Than Ever (1952); I Love Lucy (1952); Boston Blackie (1951); Death of a Salesman (1951); Here Comes the Groom (1951); Orangey in Rhubarb (1951); People Will Talk (1951); The Stu Erwin Show (1951); The Company She Keeps (1951); The Killer That Stalked New York (1950); Sunset in the West (1950); The Fuller Brush Girl (1950); 11 Ocean Drive (1950); Love That Brute (1950); Caged (1950); A Woman of Distinction (1950); The Secret Fury (1950); Whirlpool (1950); Side Street (1949); Beyond the Forest (1949); Prison Warden (1949); Alias the Champ (1949); The Reckless Moment (1949); The Doctor and the Girl (1949); Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff (1949); The Red Menace (1949); The Fountainhead (1949); Baltimore (1949); One Sunday Afternoon (1948); Slippy McGee (1948).

Introvert insight:

The secret to life is to put yourself in the right lighting.

For some, it’s a Broadway spotlight; for others, a lamplit desk.

Use your natural powers – of persistence, concentration, and insight – to do work you love and work that matters.

Solve problems.

Make art.

Think deeply.

– Susan Cain.
 
I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity.

– Marcus Tullius Cicero.
 
Our culture made a virtue of living only as extroverts.

We discouraged the inner journey, the quest for a center.

So we lost our center and have to find it again.

– Anaïs Nin.

 
He’s a wallflower.

You see things.

You keep quiet about them.

And you understand.

– Stephen Chbosky.

Ayelet Waldman, on writers and inspiration:

Most writers spend their lives standing a little apart from the crowd,

watching and listening and hoping to catch that tiny hint of despair,

that sliver of malice,

that makes them think,

'Aha, here is the story.'

- Ayelet Waldman.

On this day in music history - The album American II: Unchained, by Johnny Cash (1996):

American II: Unchained

Album by Johnny Cash,

released on November 5, 1996.

Track list:

Rowboat; Sea of Heartbreak; Rusty Cage; The One Rose (That’s Left in My Heart); Country Boy; Memories Are Made of This; Spiritual; The Kneeling Drunkard’s Plea; Southern Accents; Mean Eyed Cat; Meet Me in Heaven; I Never Picked Cotton; Unchained; I’ve Been Everywhere.

Recommended reading - The Name of the Rose (1980):

The Name of the Rose

By Umberto Eco.

Published by Harper.

First published 1980.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0063279630

ISBN-13: 978-0063279636

Description:

Italy, 1347. While Brother William of Baskerville is investigating accusations of heresy at a wealthy abbey, his inquiries are disrupted by a series of bizarre deaths. Turning his practiced detective skills to finding the killer, he relies on logic (Aristotle), theology (Thomas Aquinas), empirical insights (Roger Bacon), and his own wry humor and ferocious curiosity. With the aid of his young apprentice, William scours the abbey, from its stables to the labyrinthine library, piecing together evidence, and deciphering cryptic symbols and coded manuscripts to uncover the truth about this place where "the most interesting things happen at night."

First published in 1980, The Name of the Rose became an international sensation, beguiling readers around the world with its mix of history, humor, and intellectual heft. This beautifully designed modern edition, illustrated with exclusive original drawings created by Umberto Eco, will enchant a new generation of readers and entice old fans to fall under its spell once again.

Now available in a deluxe fortieth-anniversary paperback edition featuring never-before-seen illustrations by the author, the beloved internationally bestselling historical mystery about a brilliant monk called upon to solve a series of baffling murders in a fourteenth-century Italian abbey.

“Explodes with pyrotechnic inventions, literally as well as figuratively. Hold on till the end.” – New York Times.

“Whether you're into Sherlock Holmes, Montaillou, Borges, the nouvelle critique, the Rule of St. Benedict, metaphysics, library design, or The Thing from the Crypt, you'll love it. Who can that miss out?” – Sunday Times (London).