Where have you gone Brenda Vaccaro?

Where have you gone Brenda Vaccaro

Happy Birthday Brenda Vaccaro



Today in History

November 18, 1307 -
Local Child Services authorities in Uri, Switzerland report that a William Tell shoots apple off his son's head . Charges may be pending.



November 18, 1421 -
A seawall at the Zuiderzee dike breaks, in the Netherlands, flooding 72 villages and killing somewhere between 4,000 and 10,000 people.



Let the joke commence about the killer dikes.

November 18, 1477 -
William Caxton published the first book printed in England, on this date. The book was a translation of The Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers, by Frenchman Guillaume de Tignoville. The translation to English was performed by Anthony Wodville, Earl Rivers, who had devoted a considerable portion of his life to the study of philosophers' dictes.



Wodville first formulated the theory that the length of a philosopher's dicte was less important than its thrust. He has also been credited with originating the theory that a philosopher's dicte was commensurate with his shoe size. Neither theory is given much credence by contemporary philosophers, most of whom appear to be dicteless anyway.

November 18, 1686 -


King of France Louis XIV's anal fistula is operated on by surgeon Charles Francois Felix, with great success, in front of the horrified yet fascinated court. To prepare for the operation Felix practiced his surgery on anuses of the peasantry, with some fatalities at first but improving his technique in time for the royal bung. You know what they say, "if at first you don't succeed..."


November 18, 1928 -
Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse (according to the Disney corporation and I wouldn't mess with them.)



Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, is released on this date (it's the third appearances of Mickey and Minnie Mouse).


November 18, 1970 -
Singer/polygamist Jerry Lee Lewis divorces his third wife Myra Gail, after 12 years of marriage. Not only was she jailbait when they got married (being 13 at the time), but Lewis was married to Jane Mitcham at the time. It's so hard to keep details like the number of wives you have straight in your mind.



November 18, 1978 -
Congressman Leo Ryan is slain at the People's Temple compound in Guyana, after which over 900 members of the cult led by the Reverend Jim Jones drank cyanide laced Flavor Aid (a Kool Aid knockoff), including over 270 children. It was probably not a pretty sight.



Also, The Kraft Foods Company would like you guys to stop making those damn 'drink the Kool Aid' jokes - it wasn't them. So go 'drink the damn Flavor Aid and drop dead'.




November 18, 1985 -
The comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, created by Bill Waterson, is first published.



(in my humble opinion, the world's greatest strip)


37 more shopping days until Christmas, 34 more shopping days until Hanukkah. Shop til you drop. Remember, if you don't, the terrorists have won.


And so it goes