Asteroid Astrology: Page 6

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Aster-Obit:  George Foreman

On March 21, 2025, former world heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman passed away peacefully at a Houston, Texas hospital, surrounded by family and friends.  No cause of death has been released.  Foreman dominated professional boxing in the 1970s; claiming the championship from the then-undefeated Joe Frazier in 1973, he held the tile for just a year before his loss to Muhammad Ali in “The Rumble in the Jungle.”  Foreman retired three years later, but made a brief comeback in 1994, becoming the oldest world heavyweight champion after defeating Michael Moorer.  In later life, Foreman became a household name for his endorsement and promotion of the eponymous “George Foreman Grill,” a small double-sided cooking appliance.  He is also remembered for his eccentric habit of naming each of his five sons after himself, merely adding regnal numbers to distinguish them.

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House Diary:  Easter’s On the Half-Shell

Seems I’m not the only one moving a little slowly this spring; I’m almost finished with recovery from knee replacement surgery in January, though still a bit wobbly on uneven turf.  But Mother Nature has been dragging her feet as well, with the garden a good 4-6 weeks behind its normal schedule, after an unusually cold winter.  Fortunately, we also had snow cover through most of the coldest periods, if not deep, but at least that sheltered the more sensitive roots and bulbs from the bitter temps, and I’m hoping not to have much damage or loss.

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2025 Academy Awards Wrap-up

The 97th Academy Awards were presented on 2 March 2025, commencing at 4 PM PST in Los Angeles, California.  Thirteen of the nominees were first-time honorees, a record showing, and no more than appropriate, with a first-time host, Conan O’Brien, as well.  Newbies grabbed three of four acting awards, and among the record setters were Best Actor winner Adrien Brody (first person to have two wins for just two nominations, as well as the longest acceptance speech in Oscar history), and “Anora” director Sean Baker (first to win four Oscars for the same film, scooping up Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and Film Editing).

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Aster-Obit:  Gene Hackman

On Wednesday, 26 February, 2025, Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman and his wife were found dead at their Santa Fe, New Mexico home, following a wellness check by authorities.  Also deceased was a German Shepherd, one of several dogs owned by the couple.  Foul play was initially ruled out, but evidence at the scene was inconclusive, and police now classify the deaths as “suspicious.”  Search warrants were issued for the property to resolve the cause of death, which could extend to accident or suicide, but reporting indicates that the couple may have been dead for some time before discovery.

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valmasc movie

Happy St Valentine’s Day (Massacre)

Yeah, well, you can’t expect cupids and flowers from yours truly on Valentine’s Day, right?  Something a bit more twisted is on offer here, but it does involve asteroid Valentine 447.

It’s the infamous St Valentine’s Day massacre, perpetrated in 1929, when seven gang members were slain in a Chicago garage by associates of a rival gang, competing for dominance in Prohibition-era Illinois.  The killers have never been positively identified, but suspicion rests with former members of Egan’s Rats, now working for Al Capone, in the mass shooting at 2122 Clark Street in Chicago’s Lincoln Park section.  Competition for bootleg liquor smuggled from Canada was the proximate cause of the feud between the North Side Gang and Capone’s Chicago Outfit; some of the killers were disguised as police and the rival mobsters were slain with Thompson submachine guns, the romanticized “Tommy gun,” the most powerful weaponry of the period.

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Asteroid Sleuth:  The Case of the Deadly Dessert

A family holiday party in Tores, Brazil on December 23, 2024, turned fatal, resulting in the deaths of three members, and the hospitalization of three others, from arsenic poisoning.  Dead are sisters Maida da Silva, 58, and Neuza Silva Dos Anjos, 65; and Neuza’s daughter Tatiana, 43; a third sister, Zeli Silva, 60, Maida’s husband Jefferson, and Tatiana’s son Matheus, 10, were hospitalized with severe injuries but survived.

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