Happy Birthday John!

Entertainment, Uncategorized 6 Minutes

Today is John Travolta’s birthday (born in 1954), and I found an article on life-mag.net detailing some interesting tidbits about this amazing man!

1 He met his late wife, Kelly Preston, on the set of the 1989 film, The Experts:

At the time, Preston was married to actor Kevin Gage. But that didn’t stop their love as they got together after her divorce. They ended up getting engaged in 1991 in Switzerland and welcomed three children. Kelly sadly passed away in 2020 after a private battle with breast cancer. “It is with a very heavy heart that I inform you that my beautiful wife Kelly has lost her two-year battle with breast cancer. She fought a courageous fight with the love and support of so many,” Travolta shared on Instagram.

2 He’s still super close to his Grease co-star, Olivia Newton-John:

The pair first met on the 1978 musical film. “We were together not that long ago, about three months ago, and we text each other all the time,” he told Us Weekly in 2019.

3 When Olivia was diagnosed with breast cancer, he praised her for her strength:

 “She’s doing great,” John told Us Weekly at the premiere of The Fanatic. “And she looks fantastic! I’m so proud of her … she’s pulling it off like I’ve never seen anybody [do].”

4 He turned down the starring role in Forrest Gump:

Tom Hanks went on to win his second Oscar for the role. Even so, John doesn’t regret turning it down. “If I didn’t do something Tom Hanks did, then I did something else that was equally interesting or fun,” he told MTV in 2007.

5 He was once in a Pitbull music video:

If Saturday Night Fever taught us anything, it’s that Travolta never shies away from a dance floor. He appeared in the music video for “3 To Tango.” You don’t realize that it’s him until the end thanks to the bald head.

6 He had the “most despicable moment” in his acting career on The People v O.J. Simpson:

He told Parade that it was the scene where his character blackmailed Robert Kardashian. “I can’t believe that the character actually leverages him to try to settle, to convince the team to settle. It was such a strange day to play that and I want to see how that came out.”

7 Starring in a Western film was on his bucket list:

He managed to tick that off when he starred in In the Valley of Violence. “I think you have to do at least one Western, and it’s harder to do genre pieces today,” he told Slash Film. “Urban Cowboy was sort of a modern Western, but an old-fashioned one was what I really wanted to try,” he continued.  “And I so preferred what I was given to do in that—this legless, crotchety old marshall—it was so much more fun.”

8 He’s a licensed pilot:

He owns several planes and often flies his family around. But he once had a terrifying near-death accident when his plane experienced a total electrical failure. Thankfully, he was able to make an emergency landing.

9 His favorite movie role was on A Civil Action:

The reason why? “I really get a kick out of good writing,” he told The Consequence of Sound. He said that as soon as he saw the script for one of the scenes in the film, he “couldn’t wait to do this.”

10 He’s had some wild fan encounters:

Unfortunately, some of these mirror the obsessed fan he plays in The Fanatic. One time, a stranger entered his home. “We were having our Sunday afternoon and you’re like, ‘Who is this?’”

11 He’s the one who picked Olivia for the role of Sandy in Grease:

This is something that he takes immense pride in. “She’s got a huge soul,” he told Extra. “She is an eternal love for me and will always be… and I picked her. I take the pride of having picked Olivia Newton-John for ‘Grease.’”

12 He felt terrible for butchering Idina Menzel’s name at the Oscars:

Sooo many memes were created that day, but Travolta wasn’t laughing. “I’ve been beating myself up all day,” he said in a statement to E! News. Thankfully, he had some words of wisdom from Idina Adele Dazeem . “Then I thought…What would Idina Menzel say? She’d say, ‘Let it go, let it go!’” he said. “Idina is incredibly talented and I am so happy Frozen took home two Oscars Sunday night!” Thankfully, Idina laughed the incident off and even got her revenge.

13 He sang a duet alongside Miley Cyrus:

We never thought we’d see these two in a sentence together, much less a song, but here we are! The duo sang “I Thought I Lost You” on the 2009 soundtrack for the animated movie, Bolt .

14 Pitbull inspired him to shave his head:

If you’re wondering why he’s been rocking a bald head for years now, this is it: “I did a movie called From Paris, With Love where I shaved it. So I got used to it, some people got used to it,” he said on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “I became friends with Pitbull, and I loved how it [looked.] All us guys gotta stick together that do this.” He suits the look so more power to him!

15 He and Olivia once recreated their signature Grease looks:

It’s been 40 years since Grease came out but who can tell from looking at this picture? They had dressed up as their characters for special screenings of the film.

16 He never officially finished school.

“Not too many of my friends identified with what I was doing,” he told The Phoenix. “I participated in football and basketball, and did what they were doing, but not many kids understood my going to acting studios at night.”

17 He didn’t use a stunt double for Urban Cowboy.

He had his own mechanical bull installed in his house before they filmed the movie that way he could get used to the feeling. By the time it came to film, he didn’t need a double!

18 He regrets turning down Chicago.

It’s one of the bigger losses of his professional life. “Probably the one I didn’t explore enough is Chicago. (Studio executive) Harvey Weinstein offered it to me three times,” he said to Entertainment Tonight. “I never met with the director because I thought the play was about a bunch of women who hated men, and I like women who like men.” Even Hugh Jackman was offered the role, but ultimately the role went to Richard Gere.

19 Marlon Brando and Travolta had a close relationship!

Travolta revealed to Us Weekly that Marlon Brando told him he’d laughed a lot when Travolta imitated him on Saturday Night Live in 1994. Brando also gave him advice in the past. “The best piece of advice I ever received was from Brando. He said, ‘Don’t expect things from people that they can’t give you,’” Travolta wrote. Which to be fair, is amazing advice. Hopefully, Travolta took it to heart as much as possible.

20 He’s not the best cook but he can make a mean cup of coffee.

“I don’t often cook, but if I do, I’d consider myself a decent cook. I wouldn’t embarrass you, and I’d make it flavorful.” he admitted in Us Weekly. “I wake up and have the strongest cup of coffee you could imagine using half a pound of Starbucks Sumatra blend. It’s epic.”

21 He also told *Us Weekly* where his favorite places to visit are:

“My top five places to fly are Sydney, Australia, because it’s so inviting; Shannon, Ireland, because it’s beautiful; Hong Kong, China, because it’s exotic; São Paulo, Brazil, because the approach is between the high-rises; and Paris, because of the Eiffel Tower.”

22 Princess Diana wore an iconic dress that was later named after him.

She once wore an iconic gown to the White House and it was there that she danced with John Travolta. The dance was so famous, and the dress so beautiful, and their relationship so wonderful, that the dress soon got the nickname: “Travolta dress”.

22 One of his greatest celebrity experiences was not with Mariah Carey.

Although it certainly makes for a fantastic picture! He admitted to Us Weekly, “I’ll never forget flying with Muhammad Ali from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.” That must have been one heck of a conversation.

SOURCE: LIFE-MAG.NET

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Published by pat frederick

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67 thoughts on “Happy Birthday John!”

  1. Morning All!

    temp is below thirty but not in the single digits, so I’ll take it. Certainly not Filly weather, but an improvement over what we’ve been having. Hubby says enjoy–it ain’t hanging around too much longer.

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    1. Morning, Pat! I’m sitting at 37 this morning and clear skies….it was so windy last night that it blew the plastic chair over on my patio. Thankfully, it didn’t hit the glass table! Wheezer ate at some point last night. We’ve got some snow in the forecast so….winter returns! They’re calling for a high of 56 today, windy again (sigh), but down to 16 tonight w/chance of snow and highs in the upper 20’s until Monday. After that, it’s back to the mid-to-high 50’s.

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  3. Gudthots(@gudthots)

    Offline

    Coyote

    February 18, 2026 00:31

    1965.

    A few people have asked us why we make such a distinction between America pre and post-1965 and the answer is the 1965 Immigration Act.

    Before the ’65 Act 95% of people in the US were born here. The country had almost closed borders for two generations.

    America was a country of… pic.twitter.com/oxy8d5es0n

    — White Papers Policy Institute (@WhitePapersPol) February 17, 2026

    White Papers Policy Institute
    @WhitePapersPol
    7h

    A few people have asked us why we make such a distinction between America pre and post-1965 and the answer is the 1965 Immigration Act.

    Before the ’65 Act 95% of people in the US were born here. The country had almost closed borders for two generations.

    America was a country of settled communities.

    You had the Heritage Americans of European extraction, African Americans, and a few small regional minorities under <5% of the population combined (Natives, Chicanos, Tejanos etc).

    America was a place of deep ties to family, community, and country. Even the arrivals from the 1880s and 1920s that led to the tightening of immigration laws had largely integrated into the historic population.

    Then came the 1965 act and all of the mass immigration since. Now America is a nation of strangers with massive numbers of new minority groups all vying for a piece of the pie that generations Americans built for our posterity.

    Most importantly, they have not integrated because there are far too many and they are far, far more foreign than any immigrants who ever came before.

    We need an immigration moratorium, we need another 1924 style quota act, and we need a sensible remigration program for the many millions of people who haven’t integrated and would be happier in their homelands.

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  7. Just The News: “At least 10 skiers in California are missing as of Tuesday evening, after an avalanche blanketed a mountain near Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, according to local authorities. Nevada County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post that six skiers in a group of 16 have survived the avalanche and are waiting to be rescued, but the other 10 skiers are still missing. The group consisted of four ski guides with 12 clients. 

    The incident occurred around 11:30 a.m. Pacific time, during a winter storm and comes after the Sierra Avalanche Center issued an avalanche warning for Tuesday, which will remain in effect through 5 a.m. local time Wednesday. 

    “Highly skilled rescue ski teams have departed from both Boreal Mountain Ski Resort and Tahoe Donner’s Alder Creek Adventure Center to make their way to the six known survivors, who have been directed to shelter in place as best they can in the conditions,” the sheriff’s office said. “Weather conditions remain highly dangerous.”

    The disappearance also comes after two people were killed in avalanches in California during the 2025-2026 snow season so far. There have been a total of six reported deaths from avalanches nationwide this season, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.”

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  9. In some ways, our midwestern lifestyle in states like NE is kind of like this normally….many people here where I live never go any further than Norfolk or Yankton or at most, when they want big-city stores, Omaha/Lincoln. Once in a lifetime they might take a trip to DC or maybe go on a cruise, which is a BIG deal.

    EXCERPT: “There is an idea floating around right-wing circles, popularized by Rod Dreher in The Benedict Option, that normal families will need to strategically withdraw into intentional communities as mainstream culture continues its decline. I’ve been skeptical of this idea, having lived all my adult life in big cities, and have maintained a belief in engaging with the broader culture and fighting back where I can. (The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation, March 14, 2017)

    But after yet another massacre inflicted by a “person in a dress,” I am coming around to this idea of re-tribalization and expect elite society to increasingly revert into gated, high-trust enclaves. We are witnessing the very beginning of an epidemic of trans violence, which will accelerate this trend, because there’s little one can do to safeguard one’s children outside of a full retreat from mainstream society. I’m not thrilled about this, but your calculus changes when you have kids of your own. And the math is not looking good.

    After Tumbler Ridge, Nashville, Minneapolis, Charlie Kirk’s assassination, and others, so-called experts are still saying the uptick in trans violence is a myth. And although a relatively large portion of the mass shootings of the last few years have been perpetrated by trans-identifying people on a per capita basis, it’s overall still a small number. But I suspect this trend is going to get harder to dismiss over time.

    The trans mass shooter is a confused, lonely loser who’s had his brain discombobulated on a cocktail of sissy hypno porn, digital grooming, and experimental pharmaceuticals with irreversible effects. Everyone in his world (doctors, teachers, parents) is telling him he’s normal because, throughout the West, it’s de facto prohibited or, in some places, even unlawful to say otherwise. Everyone has to affirm and support his decision to take powerful hormones and drugs to feel normal, but he can never seem to quite achieve that elusive state of normalcy, so anything that punctures the delusion is perceived as an existential threat. A genocide, even.

    Many of the kids who start down this path are realizing too late that there are no takebacks, and a dozen or so have already followed it to the bloody conclusion that we’re seeing splashed across headlines.

    If you don’t have kids, you may not yet realize how much worse it’s going to get. But unlike today’s extremely online shooters, the generation just now becoming teenagers came online, often without any adult supervision, before they knew how to walk or talk…..

    https://thefederalist.com/2026/02/18/the-violence-from-trans-ipad-kids-is-about-to-get-a-lot-worse/

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    1. I will never forget a part of a crime story i read. some 18 year old stabbed another kid in the gut. the stabber told police–I couldn’t believe how easily the knife went into him. i thought it would be harder.

      from all the violent on line gaming and movies and such showing the violence, glorifying the criminals, kids have such a twisted sense of reality. put down the damn controllers (they’re APTLY named, aren’t they?)

      I think young criminals should have to watch Mary Poppins over and over again…

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      1. IKR? But I lay this 100% at the feet of the parents – SUPERVISE YOUR CHILDREN!!! Do NOT cave to their emotional blackmail!!! IMO, I think the parents should be charged, at least with neglect and failure to supervise!!!

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  11. Just The News: “US skier Mikaela Shiffrin on Wednesday won an Olympic gold medal in the women’s slalom, her first medal of the 2026 games in Italy.

    The women’s salmon is considered the 30-year-old Shiffrin’s best event.

    Before the race, Shiffrin, the biggest winner in the history of the World Cup circuit and a multi-time Olympian, had failed to make the podium in eight straight Olympic events. The last time she took home a medal was during the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, according to CBS News.”

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  12. “He wanted to give Obama a ballroom. O’Bummer said ‘no thanks’…

    The most detailed plans to date for the new East Wing addition on the White House were revealed yesterday. Did you know that DJT offered his buddy Barack a ballroom for free and that jackwagon actually blew him off? Yup. Former White House adviser David Axelrod said President Trump offered to build a new White House ballroom during the Obama administration. 

    Axelrod, in an interview with The New York Times published Tuesday, said Trump originally reached out to him after cleanup began following the 2010 BP oil spill, seeking to fund a new space for state dinners and the gathering of world leaders. He added that the president told him, “I build ballrooms, I build the greatest – you can ask anybody, my ballrooms are the greatest ballrooms,” according to the Times.

    “You have these state dinners, and you have them in these shitty little tents out in the backyard. Let me build a modular ballroom that you can assemble when you have state dinners, so it’ll look good,” Trump continued, per Axelrod.”

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  15. “The Pet Rock was a novelty collectible created by advertising executive Gary Dahl in 1975. It was sold as a low-maintenance pet, packaged in a custom cardboard box resembling a pet carrier, complete with breathing holes and a bed of straw. The package included a humorous, 32-page “training manual” with instructions on how to care for and train the rock. The product became a massive fad, making Dahl a millionaire in just a few months.”

    Like

    Reply

  17. “Despite their association with Chinese restaurants in the United States, fortune cookies originated in Japan and are not common in China. Fortune cookies were likely developed by Japanese immigrants in California during the late 19th or early 20th century. 

    They are served as a post-meal treat in Chinese-American restaurants but are virtually unknown in China. They are crisp wafers typically made from flour, sugar, vanilla, and sesame seed oil, containing a small piece of paper with a fortune or lucky numbers inside. 

    As far back as the 1870s, some confectionary shops near Kyoto, Japan carried a cracker with the same folded shape and a fortune tucked into the bend, instead of its hollow inside. It’s called the “tsujiura senbei,” or “fortune cracker,” according to Jennifer 8. Lee, author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food, which recounts the history of the cookie. There’s a full article with old photos on this here.”

    Making lemonade out of SoCal’s shitty weather lemons…

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  18. I’m gonna try watching Bongino’s show on Rumble once – he’s got Kash on this morning. It’s interesting watching the viewer #’s go up – over 12K waiting and going up fast…..

    Well, so much for that plan….I got sidetracked with filing the folder of my paid bills and missed the damned thing. ROFL – oh well! I can watch it any time.

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  19. OK, update on Mom – I called her this morning to see what’s what and she sounded like her old self. She is definitely going to make the move to Beatrice, thankfully; she is planning on being moved and done by the end of March. That gives her plenty of time to find just the right apartment. I decided I wasn’t going to fight her on any of this any more; it’s her life, it’s her choice – I won’t interfere. If she wants my opinion, she’ll ask! After all, I don’t want anyone doing that to me so…..it’s the right thing to do. I’ve got a stack of boxes saved for her and will take them to her and help her pack when she’s ready.

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  20. “‘Safe’ BPA substitutes tied to fertility damage, fetal harm, and generational effects, review finds” 

    Pamela Ferdinand | February 18, 2026

    A baby with a plastic toy in their mouth

    EXCERPT: “Chemicals increasingly used to replace the controversial plastic additive bisphenol A (BPA) may disrupt fertility, fetal development, and reproductive health through many of the same biological mechanisms, according to a narrative review of human, animal and laboratory studies.

    Concerns about BPA have led some manufacturers to phase it out and replace it with structurally similar compounds, most commonly bisphenol S (BPS), bisphenol F (BPF) and bisphenol AF (BPAF). While BPA exposure has declined, BPS and BPF use is rising, especially in North America and Asia.

    The review, published this month [February 2026] in Archives of Medical Research, found that these BPA substitutes—widely used in plastics, processed food and food packaging, children’s toys, and paper receipts—can interfere with the same hormone systems and gene-regulation pathways that control reproductive development in both males and females.

    “Although these compounds were originally synthesized to be safe for human use, they have also exhibited endocrine-disrupting activity similar to BPA, which affects reproductive function,” the researchers wrote. “These changes can lead to reproductive disorders and negative long-term and transgenerational consequences.”

    They say analogues were introduced without sufficient evidence of their safety, and subsequent studies show they have adverse effects similar to BPA, warranting more scientific and regulatory scrutiny. BPA has been associated with impaired memory and learning, infertility, heart disease, stroke, metabolic disease, type 2 diabetes, preeclampsia, obesity, and cancer, studies show. 

    At the molecular level, like BPA and other endocrine disruptors, the substitutes can mimic estrogen or block hormone activity, including testosterone signaling. They also appear to induce epigenetic changes, altering the chemical signals that control how genes are turned on or off and affecting processes crucial for egg and sperm formation, hormone production, and fetal growth….”

    https://usrtk.org/healthwire/bpa-substitutes-tied-to-fertility-damage-fetal-harm-generational-effects/

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  21. “According to a report on TheHill.com, House Democrats are plotting a range of moves to broadcast their defiance of President Trump during his State of the Union address to Congress next week.

    Trump’s speech marks a significant flash point amid a Department of Homeland Security shutdown, with the White House and Democrats locked in an impasse over reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection after immigration agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in Minnesota.

    They’ll have their stupid little signs, they’ll boo and hiss. They’ll act like little spoiled-brat kids. They won’t stand for anything, mostly because they stand for nothing but disruption and anger. It may be fun to watch, but it may also raise your blood pressure a little, so be sure to drink heavily and remove any throwable objects from the cocktail table before you tune in. Juss’ sayin’…”

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  25. Let’s go surf! (The red on the side is just wrong!!! It should be white, IMO.)

    It’s HIM!

    The Chase

    Uh Oh

    Extraordinary Entrance (The handles look like eyes!!! Kinda creepy!)

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      1. she really doesn’t have much to talk about otherwise. I hear about breakfast…the animals running along the fence, the weather, and who’s called her.
        my brother and sister in law have nasty colds–so they haven’t visited in over a week, so she has not a lot new to say.

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          1. she doesn’t like the movies they watch in the common areas–mostly men watching–mostly sports or war movies she says. she finally agreed to let my brother bring her tv to her room, then they got sick and haven’t been coming in–but they are allowed tvs in their rooms as long as it isn’t too loud.

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  27. May not be real, but should be

    Wow

    Those two….Genius TV

    Tulir and Thura carved this monument in memory of Thuri and Itaka their sons. (Please correct my Norse if you want.)

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  29. Orbán Viktor

    @PM_ViktorOrban

    🛢️ The Ukrainians’ decision to block oil deliveries through the Friendship pipeline to Hungary is blatant political blackmail. They’re trying to pressure us to support their EU membership & hand over funds belonging to Hungarian families. In response, Hungary has decided to stop diesel fuel deliveries to Ukraine. Thankfully, Hungary has a government that doesn’t bow to blackmail. We have taken all necessary steps to secure our supply and we will not give in.

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    1. Apparently there was a warning issued:

      “Sierra Avalanche Center issued a high avalanche danger warning for the Central Sierra Nevada, including the Greater Lake Tahoe region, starting at 5 a.m. on Tuesday, February 17, 2026, which remained in effect through 5 a.m. on Wednesday, February 18, 2026. 

      The warning stated:

      • “Rapidly accumulating snowfall, weak layers in the existing snowpack, and gale-force winds that blow and drift snow have created dangerous avalanche conditions.”
      • “Natural avalanches are likely, and human-triggered avalanches large enough to bury or injure people are very likely.”
      • “Travel in, near, or below backcountry avalanche terrain is not recommended during HIGH avalanche danger.” 

      This warning was in place at the time of the avalanche near Castle Peak, which occurred around 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, resulting in 8 skiers confirmed dead and 1 missing.  The incident occurred during a severe winter storm with heavy snowfall, high winds, and whiteout conditions, which also led to highway closures and ski resort shutdowns.” 

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