Depression, what Depression

Various news organizations are reporting this morning that shanty towns or "tent cities'" are sprouting up in major cities as the economic downturn is worsening.



It's going to get scary out there folks.


March 26, 1942 -
The Bulleteer, part of the Fleischer Superman animated series, is released on this date



This still holds up.


March 26, 1977 -
Elvis Costello releases his 1st record "Less Than Zero"



Get on those red shoes before the Angels want to borrow them and dance around.


Today in History
March 26, 1199 -
All seemed right with the Medieval world. Richard the Lion heart was taking an evening stroll around the castle perimeter without his chain mail, investigating the progress of soldiers trying to destroy the fortress in which he was seeking refuge. Arrows were occasionally fired from the castle walls, but these were given little attention. One defender in particular was of great amusement to the King - a man standing on the walls, cross bow in one hand, the other clutching a frying pan which he had been using all day as a shield to beat off missiles (this is what passed for amusement in 1199). He deliberately aimed an arrow at the King, which the King applauded. However, another arrow then struck him in the left shoulder near the neck. He tried to pull this out in the privacy of his tent, but failed; a surgeon, called a 'butcher' by Hoveden, removed it, 'carelessly mangling' the King's arm in the process. However, the wound swiftly became gangrenous.



Accordingly, Richard asked to have the cross bowman brought before him - the man proved a boy. This boy claimed that Richard had slain the boy's father and two brothers, and that he had slain Richard in vengeance. The boy expected to be slain; Richard, as a last act of mercy, forgave the boy his crime, saying, "Live on, and by my bounty behold the light of day," before ordering the boy to be freed and sent away with 100 shillings. Richard then set his affairs in order, bequeathing all his territory to his brother John and his jewels to his nephew Otto.

Richard died on Tuesday, 6 April 1199 in the arms of his mother; it was later said that "As the day was closing, he ended his earthly day." His death was later referred to as 'the Lion [that] by the Ant was slain'. His last act of chivalry proved pointless: as soon as Richard was dead, his most infamous mercenary captain Mercadier had the boy who fired the fatal arrow flayed alive and then hanged.

So much for pardons.


March 26, 1827 -
German composer Ludwig Van Beethoven dies in Vienna. He had been deaf for the later part of his life, but said on his death bead "I shall hear in heaven."



I wonder how that worked out for him?


March 26, 1830 -
Joseph Smith publishes The Book of Mormon, after translating it from golden plates turned over by the angel Moroni.



Smith maintained that the text contained in the tablets were written in "Reformed Egyptian" which he read by means of two magic stones from the Old Testament, the Urim and Thummim.


March 26, 1931 -
As if some cosmic force far greater than any of us can understand, Leonard Nimoy is born four day after William Shatner.




March 26, 2233 (There is some controversy surrounding this date) -
James Tiberius Kirk will be born to Winona & George Samuel Kirk, Sr. in a small farming community in Riverside, Iowa. As the Captain will be quoted in the future, ""I'm from Iowa, I only work in outer space".



Although born on Earth, he was apparently raised, at least for a time, on Tarsus IV, where he was one of only nine surviving witnesses to the massacre of 4,000 colonists because of utilitarian extermination by Kodos the Executioner so that the colony could survive a devastating famine.


And so it goes.