let your freak flag fly!

June 1, 1954 -
In the Peanuts comic strip, Linus' security blanket made its debut, on this date.

Although one of the things most associated with Linus is his obsessive need for the comfort provided by his security blanket, the intensity of that need clearly ebbs, as he is often (probably most frequently) shown without the beloved blanket.


June is the sixth month of the year and consists of thirty days. The ancient Romans gave it 29 days until 46 BC, when Julius Caesar added the thirtieth for reasons known only to himself (Caesar's hobbies seem to be conquest of the known world, sleeping with some very rich North African teenager and calendar making.) The last day of the month is therefore referred to as its "Caesarian Section" by calendar insiders. (Calendar insiders need to get out more often.)



The month is believed to derive its name from either the Roman goddess Juno, patron goddess of marriage, or the Latin word iuniores, (the young ones).



June marks the transition from spring to summer in the northern hemisphere, and from fall to winter in the southern hemisphere. (It is not a transitional month in other hemispheres.)



June has usually been the most popular month for weddings, but it's commonly overlooked that it's also one of the top twelve months for bathtub drownings and spontaneous human combustions.



June is traditionally considered the poet's month because with the warming of the earth and the lengthening light of the fragrant evenings, thoughts inevitably turn to romance as hearts and passions swell. Also, June rhymes with a lot of words. For example: afternoon, aswoon, attune, baboon, balloon, bassoon, bestrewn, boon, buffoon, cartoon, cocoon, commune, croon, doubloon, dragoon, dune, entune, expugn, festoon, harpoon, hewn, honeymoon, immune, inopportune, impugn, jejune, lagoon, lampoon, loon, macaroon, maroon, monsoon, moon, noon, pantaloons, picayune, platoon, poltroon, pontoon, prune, raccoon, rune, saloon, soon, spittoon, spoon, strewn, swoon, tune, tycoon, typhoon and untramaroon.


June 1, 1968 -
The British television series The Prisoner, starring Patrick McGoohan, had its American premiere on CBS-TV, as a summer replacement for a Jackie Gleason series, on this date.



The black and white head shot of Patrick McGoohan, which showed him smiling slightly and wearing a black tie and a grey suit, that was seen in the opening credits and in such episodes as "Free for All" and "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling", is a promotional photograph from McGoohan's earlier series, Secret Agent.


June 1, 1984 -
The third feature film of the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, starring the usually cast of characters on this date.



Production was endangered by the great fire at Paramount. William Shatner helped fight the fire and rescue a crewmember before firefighter reinforcements arrived. Shatner said that his motivation for doing so was purely to save a day on the shooting schedule, as he had a make a deadline to be available for shooting on a new season of T.J. Hooker.


Today in History:
June 1, 1571 -
The "Triple Tree" gallows was installed at Tyburn, England in time for the execution of John Storey, who was hanged, drawn, and quartered for committing treason.

The Triple Tree consists of an equilateral triangle nine feet long on each side, 18 feet off the ground. It can hang as many as 24 prisoners at once, and would remain in place for almost 200 years.


June 1, 1660 -
After having received a last-minute reprieve seven months earlier, Mary Dyer was hanged for heresy after returning to Boston on this date.



Dyer was guilty of the heinous crime of being a member of the Quakers, a subversive religious sect which had been banned by the Puritan colony under "pain of death" for their religious views of warm breakfast foods.


June 1, 1813 -
The U.S. Navy gained its motto as the mortally wounded commander of the U.S. frigate Chesapeake, Captain James Lawrence was heard to say, "Don't give up the ship!", during a losing battle with a British frigate Shannon; his ship was captured by the British frigate.

James Lawrence died of his wounds on June 4th, while the Chesapeake was being taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia, by her captors. His body was later repatriated to New York for burial.


June 1, 1926 -
Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.



Gladys Baker gave birth to Norma Jeane Mortenson in Los Angeles on this date.

Unfortunately, things did not quite work out for little Norma Jean.


June 1, 1938 -
Superman made his first appearance in D.C. Comics’ Action Comics Series issue #1. The comic book sold for 10 cents. Jerry Siegel created Superman in 1933 after he dreamed about the Biblical story of Moses, whose parents abandoned him as a baby in order to save his life. This became the plot of the first Superman story.

It has been estimated that there are only 50 to 100 original copies of Action Comics #1 still in existence, and a smaller number of such exceptional quality as to be at the very high end of collectibility. One copy was stolen from actor Nicolas Cage, an avid comic book collector, in 2000. In March 2011, it was found in a storage locker in the San Fernando Valley and was verified by ComicConnect.com to be exactly the same copy that they sold to him previously. Cage had previously received an insurance payment for the item.


June 1, 1967 -
It was 48 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play.



The Beatles officially released their new album and was certified "gold" on the same day of release.



It topped the charts all over the world, holding the number one slot in Britain for 27 weeks and for 19 in America. It received four Grammys including Best Album.



The album is a strange mix of songs about drug use, contrasting personae of the songwriters, heroin injection, teenage runaways, circuses (yeah right, more drug use), deep introspection, aging, amorous traffic enforcement agents and the mundane things in life, among other things.


June 1, 1968 -
Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.



Helen Keller - America's all-time favorite deaf and blind Socialist - died in Westport, Connecticut at the age of 87, on this date..


June 1, 1974 -
The procedure, the Heimlich maneuver (named after Dr. Henry Heimlich) was first mentioned in an article on this date in the journal, Emergency Medicine.



It's a maneuver that has largely replaced the old fashioned back-blows that people used to perform on choking victims.


June 1, 1980 -
Cable News Network (CNN) made its debut as the first all-news station.



How sad, Darth Vader had to do voice over work to rebuild the death star


It's Oscar the Grouch's birthday today.



Remember to leave something nice out in the trash today. (Please note: when Oscar first moved into his trash can he was orange. Then the gangrene set in.)


It's also my sister's birthday



She doesn't usually make a big fuss about it but I'd be happy sing the actual Happy Birthday song (if  I could afford it.)



And so it goes


Before I let you go:
June 1, 1495 -
The first written record of Scotch Whiskey appeared in the Exchequer  Rolls of Scotland on this date.



It is generally agreed that Dalriadan Scots monks brought distillation with them when they came to Caledonia to convert the Picts to Christianity in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. A Friar John Cor was the distiller of the first known batch.

My brother from another mother (Wingedfist) sent me some very funny videos from Traghaven Whiskey Pub & Co in Tivoli, NY.







While the bar boasts that they have the largest selection of IRISH whiskey (which is not Scotish Whiskey and therefore has nothing to do with the anniversary of today's date) available in the US, if you're in the area, you still should go check them out. But by all means, please keep your wits about you; there are some weird ass people roaming in the area.