Learn to love humility, for it will cover all your sins.

It's the feast day of Saint Anthony of Padua. One of the most beloved of saints, his images and statues are ubiquitous. Proclaimed a Doctor of the Church on January 16, 1946, he is sometimes called the Evangelical Doctor.

He is especially invoked for the recovery of things lost (I've often wondered if Marcel Proust prayed to him); as well as against starvation, barrenness; patron of amputees, animals, boatmen, Brazil, diocese in Beaumont, Texas, domestic animals, the elderly, expectant mothers, faith in the Blessed Sacrament, Ferrazzano, fishermen, harvests, horses, lower animals, mail, mariners, oppressed persons, Padua, paupers, Portugal, sailors, scholars, sterility, swineherds, Tigua Indians, travel hostesses, travellers, and watermen.



While it may be hard to be a saint in the city, swineherds take comfort in having a saint to pray to.


June 13, 1941 -
Fritz Lang wartime thriller, Man Hunt, starring Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett, George Sanders  John Carradine and Roddy McDowall premiered in NYC on this date.



The film was originally proposed as a subject for director John Ford, but he turned it down.


June 13, 1952 -
The seventh collaboration of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, Pat and Mike, was released on this date.



This is the second of two films teaming Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy to feature a script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin.


June 13, 1962 -
Stanley Kubrick's take on Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel, Lolita, premiered on this date.



Since the censors would not allow anything close to a suggestion of paedophilia, Lolita's age had to be increased - from 12 in Vladimir Nabokov's original novel to 14 for the film. They also objected to a scene where Humbert Humbert was to gaze at Lolita's picture while in bed with her mother Charlotte; in the end, the scene was filmed with Charlotte lying fully dressed on the bed and Humbert lying atop her wearing a robe.


June 13, 1967 -
Sean Connery's fifth appearance as James Bond - You Only Live Twice, opened in the US on this date.



The volcano set cost almost as much as Dr. No entire budget. It was so large, it could be seen from three miles away.


June 13, 1970 –
The Beatles song, The Long and Winding Road becomes their last U.S. number one hit on this date.



The Beatles recorded this in January 1969 as a fairly simple ballad. By 1970, The Beatles were breaking up and and Phil Spector was brought in to go through the tapes and produce the album. Spector was known for his "Wall Of Sound" recording technique, where he added many instruments and layered the tracks to create a very full sound. On this track, he took out most of The Beatles instruments and added a string section and choir (The Mike Sammes Singers). The result was very different from what the group originally had in mind.

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Even though he wrote this song, Paul McCartney didn't go to the sessions where Spector produced it. When McCartney heard the results, he made it clear that he hated what Spector did to his song, and tried to get the original version, which was mixed by engineer Glyn Johns, on the album. The band was already falling apart, and this caused further turmoil within the group, as Harrison and Lennon both supported Spector. Paul has not changed his stance over the years, and still believes Spector butchered it.


Another recent failed ACME product


Today in History:
June 13, 1381 -
In Medieval England, the famous Wat Tyler's Rebellion began, on this date.



Since most of you reading this don't live in England, most of you don't give a damn.


June 13, 1865 –
William Butler Yeats, Irish poet and dramatist, and one of the foremost figures in 20th century literature, was born on this date.



He was brother of the artist Jack Butler Yeats, the son of John Butler Yeats, and along with J. M. Synge and Sean O'Casey, was one of the driving forces behind the Irish Literary Revival. Together with Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn, he founded Abbey Theatre, and served as its chief playwright.


June 13, 1886 -
The recently-deposed monarch of Bavaria wasn't having a great day today.

Mad King Ludwig II, who wasn't so much mad as gay, had been under house arrest ever since his uncle, Prince Luitpold von Bayern, staged a coup a few days earlier, let it be known that he wasn't happy about his current situation.



That afternoon, the bodies of the King and his physician, Dr. Gudden, were discovered floating face-down in Lake Starnberg.

It's always a problem when you're the King of Bavaria and your family can't accept your active sodomy lifestyle.


June 13, 1917 -
18 German Gotha bomber planes flew over London in the first aerial bombardment in history (not counting Zeppelins). They were met by over 90 British fighters, but not one Gotha was brought down. This bombing raid caused 162 deaths.

On June 13, 1944, Germany commemorated the anniversary by launching the first of its V-1 flying bombs, also called the Doodlebug (Fieseler Fi-103), on southern England. Only one of the four missiles London saw that day caused any casualties, but a steady stream of V-1s causing severe damage and casualties increased in London in coming months.



On June 13, 1990, East Germany began officially tearing down the Berlin Wall. The date apparently has some significance in the Teutonic psyche.

Don't make any sudden moves when you come in contact with men in lederhosen (and their active sodomy lifestyles - I had to go for it, jokes always work better in threes.)


June 13, 1920 -
The United States Postal Service rules that children may not be sent via Parcel Post. Before that, children had been clogging the mail chutes of America.

I wonder what the rules are about kids and Fed Ex?


June 13, 1934 -
Two months before becoming Fuhrer, Hitler meets Mussolini in Venice. Unfortunately, Mussolini refuses to have an interpreter and his German was not good, so neither man could understand the other.



After a midnight gondola ride (or two), Mussolini began to refer to the German leader as "a silly little monkey."


June 13, 1966 -
In 1963, Ernesto Miranda was accused and convicted of abduction and rape due to a seemingly coerced confession that he later recanted. The Supreme Court determined on this date in Miranda v. Arizona, that all criminals must be informed of their rights before interrogation. This evolved into the standard language provided in a Miranda warning



The Supreme Court overturned his conviction, but he was retried and convicted again in 1966. He was released from prison in 1972 and later stabbed to death in a men's room at a bar where he was playing poker in 1976.


June 13, 1971 -
Next to the White House wedding photo of President Nixon's daughter Tricia, the New York Times ran its first story on the Pentagon Papers, a top secret DoD analysis authored by the RAND Corporation detailing every mistake and deception made during the 30-year history of the Vietnam War.



Attorney General John Mitchell manages to block any further publication of the embarrassing documents, but the court order is countermanded two weeks later in a Supreme Court decision. (I was reminded by a very loyal reader about a quote, attributed to Tom Lehrer, about John Mitchell: If you like John Mitchell, you'll love Ed Meese.)



And so it goes.


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