(Illustration found here).

All things on this planet have just three parts: A beginning, a middle, and an end.
No matter the subject, the material, or the biological make-up, the life of all things have this order of narrative, from plants, to animals, and to human peoples — no one escapes this hard-set plot, whether it’s one year or 90.
And no matter how smart we humans think we are, history also has those three segments of existence, and apparently from the looks of it all, we’re well-possible within that third and final installment.

Perfect Storm (from merriam-webster.com): A critical or disastrous situation created by a powerful concurrence of factors.
The two-word phrase to describe an extraordinary set of circumstance dates back to 1936 and beyond — “A perfect storm of discontent had arisen” (1888), “a perfect storm of applause” (1859), “a perfect storm of uterine contractions” (1848), “a perfect storm of musketry” (1846), etc. And of course, the literal sense is attested way back as well: “the wind having increased to a perfect storm” (1812).
Nowadays, it’s all of the above, except maybe the, ‘applause,’ part.

Hey!
Happy birthday to Gena Rowlands — today she’s 82 years young.

She has always been one of my most-favorite actresses, though, she hasn’t done much in recent years, mostly just TV parts.
Teaming with her late, most-creative husband, director/writer/actor John Cassavetes, Rowland made some great films, including Faces (1968), Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), and my favorite, Gloria (1980).

And going beyond beauty, talent and class, the asshole quote of the day:

“I see a reporter here,” he said.
“I just pray that you start writing about these issues.
I just pray.
Stop always writing about, ‘Oh, the person couldn’t get, you know, their food stamps or this or that.’
You know, I saw something the other day — it’s like, another sob story, and I’m like, ‘But what about what’s happening to the country and the country as a whole?’
That’s going to devastate everybody.”
— Eric Hovde, Republican Senate candidate from Wisconsin

Yeah, stop whining.