Monday, June 25, 2012

(Awesome) something to think about

According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (remember, they have no affiliation to organized crime,) Americans will eat 7 billion hot dogs over the summer.



That's a lot of lips and thighs (and other unmentionable ground animal parts.)


Michael Jackson has been singing with the castrati in Heaven for three years. Death hasn't put a crimp in his record sales.  (Farrah Fawcett also died three years ago today.  I don't believe she's singing with any castrati.)



There is no connection between these two events but it's the birthday of George Michael:



I wonder how he celebrated his birthday? (He definitively, is not singing with castrati.)


Happy LEON day. LEON is NOEL spelled backwards. It is now six months until Christmas.



Kids, you can take a quick check of the whole naughty/ nice thing and see how you are doing.


June 25, 1963 -
One of Federico Fellini's greatest films, Otto e mezzo, (), opened in the US, on this date.



At one point, Federico Fellini wanted to cast Laurence Olivier in the lead role.


June 25, 1982 -
The greatest dystopian Sci- Fi film (at this point), Blade Runner, opened on this date.



While the film is loosely based on Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the title comes from a book by Alan Nourse called The Bladerunner. William S. Burroughs wrote a screenplay based on the Nourse book and a novella entitled Blade Runner: A Movie.


June 25, 1993 -
Possibly the greatest Meg Ryan 'chick flick' (which may seem redundant to some,) Sleepless in Seattle, premiered on this date.



When Meg Ryan's character is in the kitchen in the middle of the night listening to the 'best of' radio callers, the caller 'Disappointed in Denver' is voiced by the director, Nora Ephron.


Today in History:
June 25 841 -
Charles the Bald and Louis the German defeated Lothar at Fontenay on this date.


I kid you not, Charles the Fat and Louis the Younger (Louis' sons) were too young (although Louis the Younger was older than Charles the Fat) to join in the fracas.And you thought mafioso capo names were funny.


June 25, 1876 -
This is a little cautionary tale about pissing off the wrong people.

During the Battle of Little Big Horn, General George Armstrong Custer witnesses a large group of Indians fleeing their village, and decides to press his advantage. The cavalry officer shouts, "We've caught them napping, boys!" Then he splits his force of 210 men into three groups, in order to slaughter as many of the retreating noncombatants as possible. Which is right about the time Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse sweep in and kill the white men. Two days later, Custer's body is found amidst a cluster of 42 other corpses, the general entirely naked except for one boot, one sock, and an arrow stuck in his penis.



This is the native way a sending a very serious message.


June 25, 1903
Eric Arthur Blair was born on this day in eastern India, the son of a British colonial civil servant. He burned to be a writer but had no success get people to look at his work, so he was forced him into a series of menial jobs.



Finally he became a Famous Author and even a Great Writer, but by then he was dead, whatever his name was.


June 25, 1910 -
The Mann Act, sometimes known as the White Slave Traffic Act of 1910, makes it a federal crime to convey or assist in transporting women across state lines for prostitution, debauchery, or "any other immoral purpose." Men convicted of this heinous (if vague) statute face up to five years and a $5,000 fine for each count. Penalties are doubled if the female is underage, but men and boys are apparently not covered. This is, by far, the biggest party pooper in legislative history.



Unless you're into guys.


June 25, 1938 -
Another in the series of 'books come alive', Have You Got Any Castles? was released on this date.



Look for this: the memo pad on the desk has a note written - "ask the boss for a raise". This was apparently a small act of defiance pointed at their boss at Termite Terrace, Leon Schlesinger, who had a reputation for bring notoriously cheap.


June 25, 1967 -
The first live, international, satellite television production, Our World, was broadcast on this date. Among the featured performers were opera singer Maria Callas, artist Pablo Picasso and a small English skiffle group called The Beatles.



When the The Beatles' appearance on the program was announced, John Lennon wrote the song especially for the occasion. He was told by the BBC: it had to be simple so that viewers around the world would understand it.

I guess he got it right?


There are 183 days until Christmas; there are 179 days until the Mayan end of the world calendar.



And so it goes.

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