Two actor POP days

It’s Eva Marie Saint Lucy’s Day and, in today’s Wayno/Piraro Bizarro combo, a Kurt Russell terrier bounds in:

(#1) (If you’re puzzled by the odd symbol in the cartoon — Dan Piraro says there’s just one in this strip — see this Page.)

First, Kurt Russell and the Russell terrier. Then Eva Marie Saint and St. Lucy’s Day. In both cases, a member of what I’ve called the Acting Corps (see the Page on this blog), with a name in a POP (a phrasal overlap portmanteau; see the Page on this blog).

To come in another posting, the morning name for yesterday:  the actor name-chain POP Stephen Boyd Gaines, plus a longer name chain that gets from actor Raul Julia to actor Boyd Gaines in 9 steps, with actors Penelope Keith and Keith David in the middle.

Kurt Russell terrier. The actor, from Wikipedia:

Kurt Vogel Russell (born March 17, 1951) is an American actor. He began acting on television at the age of 12 in the western series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (1963–1964). In the late 1960s, he signed a ten-year contract with The Walt Disney Company where, according to Robert Osborne, he became the studio’s top star of the 1970s.

(#2) A shirtless young Russell as Jungle Boy in the Gilligan’s Island tv episode “Gilligan Meets Jungle Boy” (2/6/65)

Russell was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for his performance in Silkwood (1983).

(#3) Russell, also shirtless but considerably more mature, in Silkwood (1983)

In the 1980s, he starred in several films directed by John Carpenter, including anti-hero roles such as army hero-turned-robber Snake Plissken in the futuristic action film Escape from New York (1981),

(#4) Russell as Snake Plissken in Escape from L.A. (1996) — the image you need to understand the cartoon in #1

and its sequel Escape from L.A. (1996), helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady in the remake of the horror film The Thing (1982), and truck driver Jack Burton in the dark kung-fu comedy action film Big Trouble in Little China (1986), all of which have since become cult films. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for the television film Elvis (1979), also directed by Carpenter.

And the dog. From Wikipedia:

(#5) A Russell terrier, as in #1; photo from the AKC site on the breed

The Russell Terrier is a predominantly white working terrier with an instinct to hunt prey underground. The breed was derived from Jack Russell’s working terrier strains that were used in the 19th century for fox hunting. Russell’s fox working strains were much smaller than the Show Fox Terrier and remained working terriers. The size of the Russell Terrier (10″ to 12″) combined with a small flexible, spannable chest makes it an ideal size to work efficiently underground. Their unique rectangular body shape with the body being of slightly longer length than the leg makes them distinctly different from the Parson Russell Terrier and the Jack Russell Terrier of the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America (JRTCA).

The Russell Terrier originated in England, but the country of development was Australia.

(There appears to be some variant usage in labeling the breeds, but this information will do for understanding #1.)

Eva Marie Saint Lucy’s Day. The actor, from Wikipedia:

(#6) Saint in 1990

Eva Marie Saint (born July 4, 1924) is an American actress. In a career spanning 70 years, she is known for starring in Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront (1954), for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, and Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959). She received Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations for A Hatful of Rain (1957) and won a Primetime Emmy Award for the television miniseries People Like Us (1990). Her film career also includes roles in Raintree County (1957), Exodus (1960), The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1965), Grand Prix (1966), Nothing in Common (1986), Because of Winn-Dixie (2005), Superman Returns (2006), and Winter’s Tale (2014).

Then, on my 12/13/12 posting “Lucy”, information about “Santa Lucia” (the song), St. Lucia of Syracuse, and St. Lucy’s Day (December 13th, a specifically Swedish holiday but more widely celebrated), and its seasonal candles and food. From the Munduslingua site article on St. Nicholas’ Day and St. Lucy’s Day:

(#6) A Swedish girl wearing a crown of candles in memory of St. Lucia of Syracuse; light in mid-winter

From my “Lucy” posting:

And in my little urban garden, along with St. Lucy comes the blooming season of the cymbidium orchids (a stand of patio plants that were gifts from me to Jacques over the years). This year the first appearance was of greenish-yellow flowers

Two greenish-yellow cymbidiums are blooming right now, and some clear yellow buds are opening. The first flower stalks to appear — three brownish-red cymbidiums that are clones of the original gift to Jacques in 1987 — were noticeable on October 1st, with buds that have been hovering on opening ever since but have still not actually flowered. The ways of plants are inscrutable.

In any case, they have until January 22nd, Jacques’s birthday, to burst into bloom. I watch and wait.