Dog days are over

Summer is on the wane



Soon it will be the 'Vole days of Fall'


It's time once again for your favorite series: The Lives of the Neurotics before Psychopharmaceutical:
It's the Feast of St. Clare today. St. Clare (or Clair or Claire - spelling wasn't a major issue back then. Living past 29 years old was considered miraculous) didn't want to marry the rich young man her parents picked out for her and ran away from home to become the biggest Francis of Assisi groupie in the world. St Clare was too ill to attend Mass, she had reportedly been able to see and hear it on the wall of her room (she had phenomenal reception for the Middle Ages.) This led to her becoming the patron saint of television.

But I'm not sure if you pray to her for quality TV or to deliver you from all the bad TV out there. I'm sure we should pray never to see Honey Boo Boo on TV.

Management has reminded me that this is not a blog about the lives of the saints, so I'll icknay on the aintsay alktay for awhile.


August 11, 1962 -
Booker T & the MG's released Green Onions on Stax, on this date.



The group brought this to the Memphis radio station WLOK the day after they recorded it. It got huge response and went on to be a national hit. Upon the release of the single, DJs ignored the A-side Behave Yourself and played Green Onions instead. Subsequent singles were pressed with Green Onions as the A-side.


Augst 11, 1972 -
Mott the Hoople's Glam Rock Anthem, All The Young Dudes was released in the UK on this date.



The song was written and produced by David Bowie. Bowie intended this song for his The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars concept album. But David was a big fan of Mott the Hoople and heard that they might be breaking up due to poor album sales. He offered them the song, knowing it was going to be a hit.


Today in History:
August 11, 1772 -
The summit of Papandayan volcano in West Java suddenly implodes, unleashing a catastrophic debris avalanche which blankets an area of 250 square km. Tumbling boulders flatten 40 villages and their 2,957 inhabitants.



Alright, let go over this one more time: virgins, island gods, volcano pit.  I don't think I need to say any more on the topic.


August 11, 1919 -
Andrew Carnegie, industrialist, philanthropist, and founder of Carnegie Steel, died on this date. Carnegie became a philanthropist in later life, giving away more than $350 million and building 2,509 public libraries. His value in 1999 dollars totaled $100 billion. The man who dies rich dies disgraced, was the motto of Andrew Carnegie.



Carnegie‘s last years were spent giving away as much money as possible in an effort to shed his image as one of the era‘s leading “robber barons.” Among other bequests to good causes, he established the Carnegie Institute of Technology and hundreds of Carnegie Free Public Libraries across the U.S


August 11, 1937 -
On this day, expatriate Edith Wharton died in France, and ex-expatriate Ernest Hemingway didn't, in New York. Edith Wharton died in France, in the quiet, Old World style she liked to live and describe;

also on this day, and in New World contrast, ex-expatriate Ernest Hemingway bared his hairy chest to Max Eastman's unhairy one, demanded "What do you mean accusing me of impotence?" and then wrestled Eastman to the floor.

I'm not accusing Hemingway of anything, it's just Hemingway liked to strip to the waist, grease his body and wrestle smaller, slender men to the ground - sweating and grunting, stiffening, then becoming quite still.



That's perfectly normal.


August 11, 1956 -
Jackson Pollock famous abstract artist and public urinator, died in an alcohol-related, single car crash on this date at the age of only 44, killing one of his passengers, Edith Metzger.



The other passenger, his girlfriend Ruth Kligman, survived.


August 11, 1984 -
Not realizing that his weekly radio address is already on the air, President Ronald Reagan quipped into his live microphone: "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."



It wasn't supposed to go out, but did. The Kremlin was not pleased . Oh that rascally dead President, such a kidder.



And so it goes.


August 11, 3114 BC
The Mayan Long Count Calendar started on this date. A second long cycle of the calendar will end on December 21, 2012

So once again:
There are 136 days until Christmas
There are 132 days until the end of days (according to the damn Mayan calendar)

Plan accordingly