On this day of Thanks, enter here to find out how you've wasted your pathetic life...

[Shirley Ujest]

Mueseum of conceptual art (http://www.museumofconceptualart.com/accomplished/index.html)


Jersey Joe Walcott became the oldest man ever to win the world's heavyweight boxing title.

Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield, considered to be his greatest work.

Esther ("Eppie") Pauline Friedman Lederer took over the "Ann Landers" advice column. Her twin sister, Pauline Phillips, began writing the "Dear Abby" column under the pseudonym Abigail Van Buren. They became known for their common sense advice on subjects such as not pretending to be someone you're not.

Opera singer Beverly Sills finally achieved international prominence in a production of Handel's Julius Caesar.

Earl Vickers became the first person to translate the entire Bible into Pig Latin.



Earl Vickers is my new personal hero.

[norinew]

At age 42:

Arlette Rafferty Schweitzer became the first woman to give birth to her own grandchildren.

Mme. Tussaud opened her wax museum.

Henry Shrapnel, an English artillery officer, invented the shrapnel shell.

"Satchel" Paige became the first black pitcher in the American League.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar became the oldest NBA regular player.

Tennis player Bill Raskam became Renee Richards and registered for the U.S. Women's Tennis championships.

Junk bond promoter Michael Milken was indicted for conspiracy, racketeering, and securities fraud.

Joseph Hazelwood left the bridge of the Exxon Valdez and turned over control to a shipmate, after which the ship struck a reef and leaked 11 million gallons of crude oil.
And I just turned 42 earlier this month, so I still have plenty of time left to accomplish any or all of these things!:D

[Chavardz]

I've always loved this quote from Confesions of a dangerous mind:

Jesus was dead and alive again by the time he was 33, you better get crackin'

[APOC]

HA !

That's inspirational !

Yesterday I was lamenting the fact that it was looking increasingly unlikely that the Nobel Committee had just lost my number and that unless saving the world on a daily basis becomes an Olympic Sport I am unlikely to be having a civic reception in my home town.

And now I find out that Mark Twain , Agatha Christie and Hans Christian Anderson werent even published at my age and that I still have a whole 3 Months to match Bill Gate's feat of becoming a millionare before 30.

Today life suddenly aint so glum :)

[pierre72]

At age 32:

Alexander the Great conquered almost the entire known world.

There's still time, then...

Mwahahahahaaaaaa!

[garius]

Pitt the Younger was Prime Minister of Great Britain by the age of 24. :eek:

That gives me 7 months - i better get cracking...

[Einmon]

And, APOS, don't forget, there's still time to party:

Hank Williams overdosed on drugs and alcohol.

[Einmon]

APO*C*, of course. If only I could find out the reason why I am not yet published...

[DaisyFace]

British ethologist Jane Goodall set up camp in the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve on Lake Tanganyika and began studying the lives of chimpanzees.

Wow, suddenly volunteering for the Girl Scouts seems even more rewarding, and age-appropriate. (26)

[flodnak]

Originally said by Tom Lehrer
"...by the time Mozart was my age, he'd been dead for two years."

[Fretful Porpentine]

At age 27:

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. dropped out from his job at General Electric to become a full-time writer.

Henry David Thoreau went off for two years to live alone in a cabin at Walden Pond.

Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space.

Memphis millionaire Frederic W. Smith, whose father built the Greyhound bus system, founded Federal Express.

Scottish botanist David Douglas discovered the Douglas fir.

Ernest Hemingway published his first novel, The Sun Also Rises.

Boston dentist William Morton pioneered modern anaesthesiology after learning that inhalation of ether will cause a loss of consciousness.
I could do the cabin thing, although most of the others are pretty much lost causes.

[Ruby]

At age 44:

George Washington crossed the Delaware River and captured Trenton, New Jersey.

Why the hell did he want Trenton, New Jersey anyway?

[alice_in_wonderland]

At age 30:

Hank Williams overdosed on drugs and alcohol.

Well heck. Even I could do that...

[Bumbazine]

At age 56:

George Granville Leveson-Gower, duke of Sutherland, destroyed the homes of Scottish Highlanders and drove thousands of residents off the land to make room for sheep.

Well, that cheered me right up. :rolleyes:

I'm gonna go bake some pies. That'll be better than ol' George did.

[Capcha]

at age 22:

Caresse Crosby became the first person to patent a brassiere, which was made of two handkerchiefs and ribbon sewn together.

Should i laugh or cry?

[Guinastasia]

At age 25:

The future mythologist Joseph Campbell decided to move to Woodstock to read the classics for five years, nine hours a day. Living on very little, he would make himself readily available as a dinner guest.

Orson Welles coscripted, directed, and starred in Citizen Kane.

By this age, Charles Chaplin had appeared in 35 films.

P. T. Barnum bought a "160-year-old" slave woman and began a career in show business.

Janis Joplin made her first recording, "Cheap Thrills," which grossed over a million dollars within a few months.

Chris Burden created "Painting Shoot," which involved the artist being shot in the left arm by a friend.

Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic, thus winning a $25,000 prize.

Fayette, N.Y. farmhand Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He claimed he translated the Book of Mormon from some golden tablets revealed to him by the angel Moroni.

Bavarian painter Aloys Senefelder invented the lithograph.

French engineer Benoit Fourneyron invented the first waterwheel turbine.

Sarah Bernhardt scored her first triumph, being asked to repeat her theatrical performance before Napoleon III.

Physician Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile. As he collapsed unconscious into the arms of his trainer, the loudspeaker announced, "The time was three..." The uproar of the fans drowned out the rest of the announcement.

[Ringo]

Apparently 50 is a relatively quiet age. The only exciting thing listed is a dubious "accomplishment:"

Antoine Lavoisier, the founder of modern chemistry, was sent to the guillotine in retribution for directing the previous regime's tax organization.

[Cerowyn]

Originally posted by Shirley Ujest
Mueseum of conceptual art (http://www.museumofconceptualart.com/accomplished/index.html)





Earl Vickers is my new personal hero. Seems you're the same age as me. :)

[Saint Zero]

At age 35:

Based on a nightmarish dream, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Russian ambassador Aleksandr Borosovich Kurakin introduced the practice of serving meals in courses.

Frederic William Herschel, an English astronomer, invented the contact lens.

American sprinter Evelyn Ashford won her final Olympic gold medal at age 35, old for a sprinter.

Amedeo Avogadro developed Avogadro's hypothesis.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin achieved his life's ambition at age 35 and wondered, what do you do after that?

Mozart stopped composing and started, well, you know....


I'm sunk.

[Tripler]

At age 26:

Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Italy.

Gon Yangling memorized more than 15,000 telephone numbers in Harbin, China.

British ethologist Jane Goodall set up camp in the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve on Lake Tanganyika and began studying the lives of chimpanzees.


So, I can conquer a nation, be Rain Man, or go about my own monkey business. . . :confused:

Choices choices choices. . .

Tripler
Well, Napoleon and myself are the same height. I think I'll start with invading North Dakota.

[Arden Ranger]

At age 41:

Joshua Norton, a pauper, declared himself Norton I, Emperor of the United States. He became San Francisco's biggest tourist attraction and was probably the model for the character of "The King" in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn.

Huey Long delivered the longest speech on record, a 15 1/2 hour marathon including cooking recipes and pointless anecdotes.

Alice Roosevelt Longworth, on giving birth at age 41, said "I'll try anything once."

Rudyard Kipling became the youngest Nobel Laureate in literature.

Christo completed his 24 1/2 mile "Running Fence" through the hills of northern California.

Antoine Laurent de Jussieu invented the modern classification of plants.

Charles Babbage proposed a large-scale digital calculator, the "analytical engine."

I suppose I need to go declare myself Empress of America now.

[Eve]

At age 46:

Mary Leakey first spotted the fossilized molar teeth that won Louis Leakey fame for discovery of the missing link.

Benjamin Franklin conducted experiments with a kite and discovered that lightning is an electrical discharge.

A Scottish surgeon, James Baird, discovered hypnosis.

Golfer Jack Nicklaus became the oldest man ever to win the Masters.

Alfred Eisenstaedt made his most famous photo, of a sailor sweeping up a girl in a kiss during a V-J day celebration in Times Square.

Isabel Bevier became the first person to use a thermometer for meat cooking.

--Actually, I feel better, because I don't want to do any of those things.

(I wonder if Ginger Rogers ever sang that Pig-Latin Bible?)

[Dijon Warlock]

At age 40:

John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.

Joan Ganz Cooney founded Children's Television Workshop and became the mastermind behind "Sesame Street."

Charles Thurber patented a typewriter.

Chemist Franz Karl Achard developed a process for extracting sugar from beets.

Physicist William Sturgeon created the first electromagnet.

Jean Eugene Atget, now considered one of the greatest photographers, took up photography.

Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run.

Harriet Beecher Stowe, a mother of six who occasionally wrote for magazines, published Uncle Tom's Cabin, an antislavery novel of such force that it is generally recognized as one of the causes of the Civil War.

Earl Vickers unveiled his audio effects plug-in SFX Machine at the 1997 NAMM convention.That Earl Vickers gets around.

I'm taking up photography.

[Shirley Ujest]

Earl Vickers created the web site, I discovered with the wonders of google.

[asterion]

At age 21:

Italian violinist and composer Giuseppe Tartini had a dream in which he sold his soul to the Devil. The piece he wrote upon waking, the "Devil's Sonata," was the best he ever wrote, though far inferior to the one he heard in his dream.

American novelist Herman Melville jumped ship and spent a month as the captive of a cannibal tribe. This became the source of his novel Typee.

Jack London went to the Klondike with the first rush of gold-seekers, returning home a year later as poor as when he had left.

English chemist Humphry Davy discovered nitrous oxide ("laughing gas"), and suggested that it may have use as an anaesthetic.

Thomas Alva Edison created his first invention, an electric vote recorder. After it failed to sell, he decided to devote his energy to inventions for which there was a market.

John Dillinger robbed a grocery store, was caught and spent 9 years in prison. He later became "public enemy number one," before being gunned down by the FBI.

Luther Burbank purchased 17 acres of land near Lunenburg, Massachusetts and began a plant-breeding career that would span 55 years.

Pablo Casals made significant modifications in cello playing technique and was acclaimed as a master.

Pittsburgh songwriter Stephen Foster wrote "Oh! Susanna!" which quickly gained great popularity.

Future robber baron Jay Gould began investing in the leather business and speculating in railroad stocks.

Robert Browning publishes his first poetry; it is poorly received.

Alfred Tennyson publishes his first poetry; it is poorly received.

College dropout Steven Jobs co-founded Apple Computer.

Actually, I don't feel too bad right now.

[jesleigh]

At age 19:

Writer, painter and filmmaker Jean Cocteau published his first volume of poetry.

By age 19, W. B. Yeats "lived, breathed, ate, drank and slept poetry."

French symbolist poet Arthur Rimbaud ("A Season in Hell") abandoned his writing. He had proposed that poets become visionaries by pursuing a complete derangement of the senses. Later he became a gunrunner in Africa.

Gore Vidal, who never bothered with college, completed his first novel.

Abner Doubleday devised the rules for baseball.

Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky resigned his Imperial Guard commission for a life of "meaningful endeavor" -- writing music.

Paleontologist Richard Leakey launched his first expedition in search of human fossils.

Tired of watching friends fall prey to drugs and crime, Matty Rich fought back by directing "Straight Out of Brooklyn."

Henry David Thoreau delivered a Harvard commencement address. Expanding on Emerson's 1836 essay on "Nature", he proposed that man should work one day a week and leave six free for the "sublime revelations of nature."

Horticulturist Luther Burbank read Charles Darwin's book, The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication. Inspired by this, he went on to create hundreds of new varieties of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.


Yep, I figure I'm right on track ;)

[FisherQueen]

At age 30, Earl Vickers started the Dollar Project, in which dollar bills were rubber-stamped as being lost, with a reward offered for their safe return.

Just in case you were wondering about the Dollar Project.

[Danalan]

Apparently, Earl is now 45. Like me.

[Cat Whisperer]

Happy Birthday, Shirley. If I remember correctly, we share the same birthday (Nov. 27, 1966).

[Michael Ellis]

At age 20:

Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard and cofounded Microsoft.

Canadian hockey player Scott Olsen founded Rollerblade, Inc.

English novelist Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, which was immediately successful.

Ragtime composer Scott Joplin became an itinerant pianist and travelled throughout the Midwest.

Despite a lack of experience, James Cagney fast-talked his way into a vaudeville dancing job.

Egyptian hermit Saint Anthony gave away his inheritance and joined a group of ascetics, eventually becoming the father of Christian Monasticism.

D. H. Lawrence began writing his first novel, The White Peacock.

Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice, her second and most famous novel.

English author Elizabeth Barrett Browning published her first volume of poetry.

Polish-born Joseph Conrad, one of the great English language novelists, began learning English, his third language.

Charles Lindbergh learned to fly.

John Stuart Mill pulled himself out of depression and found that the ordinary events of life could again give him some moderate amounts of pleasure. He decided that happiness is attained not by making it the direct goal of life, but by fixing one's mind on some other pursuit.

Leon Battista Alberti wrote a Latin comedy that was hailed as the "discovered" work of a Roman playwright.

The Greek philosopher Plato became a disciple of Socrates.

Alexander Graham Bell taught a stray Skye Terrier to talk; by training the dog to growl on cue and then manipulating his mouth and throat, Bell could make him produce the phonemes "ow, ah, ooh, ga, ma, ma," to say "How are you, Grandmama?"

But can they master vB Code like me? I think not! (Well, maybe Bill Gates could.)

[Typo Negative]

Originally posted by alice_in_wonderland
Well heck. Even I could do that... Hey, I did that at 20.

Woohoo!

[bindera]

At age 15:

Albert Einstein, with poor grades in geography, history and languages, dropped out of school.

Composer George Gershwin ("Rhapsody in Blue") left school to pitch his songs in Tin Pan Alley.

Chess champion Bobby Fischer became an international grandmaster and dropped out of high school to devote himself to professional competition.

Swedish tennis star Bjorn Borg dropped out of school to concentrate on tennis.
Hm. I see a pattern here. :)

[pencilpusher]

Originally posted by Guinastasia
At age 25:

Fayette, N.Y. farmhand Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He claimed he translated the Book of Mormon from some golden tablets revealed to him by the angel Moroni.



Ok this makes me wonder why they aren't called Morons......:dubious: