Wednesday, October 7, 2015

When will this ever end!

14 years ago today, the US launched Operation Enduring Freedom, hunting for the terrorist in Afghanistan, that brought down the World Trade Center Towers. Given the current situation on the ground, there are rumors of a troop increase again.

Last week, the 2370th US soldier died; there have been 3502 coalition deaths.  Please take a moment out of your day today to consider the sacrifices, warranted or not, that the men and woman of the US military (and their families) have made.


October 7, 1950 -
The character of Granny appeared for the first time in a Looney Tunes Cartoon when Canary Row premiered on this date.



The title of this cartoon is a play of words on the 1945 John Steinbeck novel, Cannery Row.


October 7, 1952
-
A little TV show called American Bandstand premiered on this date, 63 years ago.



It premiered locally as a live show, Bandstand, on Philadelphia television station WFIL-TV (Channel 6, now WPVI-TV) on this date in Studio 'B', which was located in their just-completed addition to the original 1947 building (4548 Market Street) and was hosted by Bob Horn, with Lee Stewart as co-host. Dick Clark did not become associated with the show until 1956.


October 7, 1960 -
Kirk Douglas
in his magnificent leather thong, starred in Spartacus, which premiered in the US on this date.



Stanley Kubrick was not given control of the script, which he felt was full of stupid moralizing. After his work on Spartacus, Kubrick always kept full control over all aspects of his films.


October 7, 1960 -
Route 66
premiered on this date.



The show was originally to be called The Searchers, which would have made a lot more sense, but producers feared there would be confusion with the very popular John Wayne western by that name that came out four years earlier.


October 7, 1971 -
William Friedkin's
taut policier, The French Connection, opened in NYC on this date.



William Friedkin
recently reiterated his claim that he did not have any official permission for the iconic car chase and only secured 'permission' with a $40,000 bribe to an MTA official.


Today in History:
October 7, 1849
-
On this date, Edgar Allen Poe was found in a delirious state (Maryland) outside a Baltimore voting place (saloon).




Mr. Poe was often found delirious, especially outside voting places,



but this time his delirium was serious and he died.


October 7, 1952 -
It's Vladimir Putin's 63rd birthday.



Somebody please check what the Russian people are drinking; in the past year, Russia has annexed Crimea, and transformed what had been a domestic Ukrainian crisis an international one and propping up a failing regime by bombing the resistance in Syria; Putin’s approval numbers have never been higher (domestically.)


October 7, 1955 -
It was on this day in San Francisco at the Six Gallery, the poet Allen Ginsberg read his poem Howl for the first time.



The poem begins, "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness." His friend Jack Kerouac sat on the edge of the stage and when Ginsberg was done, the audience exploded in applause.



When Lawrence Ferlinghetti published the poem Howl out of his City Lights bookstore in San Francisco, he was arrested and tried for obscenity, but he was found not guilty.


October 7, 1959 -
... There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark.



The dark far side of the Moon was photographed for the first time and pictures relayed back to Earth by Russia's Luna 3 spacecraft. After passing the moon, the Luna 3 looked back from a distance of 63,500 km to take 29 photos of the sunlit far side of the moon.



The photos, taken over a period of 40 minutes, were developed onboard and radioed back to earth on October 18, 1959. They covered 70% of the far side. While the resolution of the photographs was very low resolution, many of the features of the moon could be recognized.


October 7, 1964 -
Walter W. Jenkins, chief White House aide and longtime friend of President Lyndon B. Johnson, was arrested for disorderly conduct two blocks from the White House on this date. Jenkins was discovered in a YMCA pay toilet with another man.

Ultimately, Jenkins is forced to resign, so as not to jeopardize Johnson's re-election campaign. Jenkins stated that during his arrest, his mind had been "befuddled by fatigue, alcohol, physical illness, and lack of food."

Yeah, that's it, befuddled by fatigue... yeah, that and a wide stance will get you in trouble in a mens public restroom all the time.



And so it goes

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