Wednesday, October 7, 2020

But once picked, they are tempermental as all get out

Other things to occupy your mind with other than COVID-19 - Avocados never ripen on trees.

Unlike many other tree fruits, avocados do not ripen on the tree and must be picked before they can develop a desirable texture. Properly timing the picking is important, as the only reason that an avocado will not ripen is if it is harvested prematurely or stored improperly, in cool conditions.


19 years ago today, the US launched Operation Enduring Freedom, hunting for the terrorist in Afghanistan, that brought down the World Trade Center Towers. On December 31, 2014, Operation Enduring Freedom - Afghanistan concluded, and was succeeded by Operation Freedom's Sentinel on January 1, 2015.



As of September 30, 2020, 2,447 US soldier have died; there have been 3555 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, directed by Friz Freleng and starring Sylvester and Tweety, 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, 68 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, 1959 -
The 50s most glamorous and wholesome stars - Rock Hudson and Doris Day, starred in their first pairing, Pillow Talk, which went into general release on this date.



Ross Hunter wrote that after he made this film, no theatre managers wanted to book it. Popular movie themes at the time were war films, westerns, or spectacles. Hunter was told by the big movie chains that sophisticated comedies like Pillow Talk went out with William Powell. They also believed that Doris Day and Rock Hudson were things of the past and had been overtaken by newer stars. Hunter persuaded Sol Schwartz, who owned the Palace Theatre in New York, to book the film for a two-week run, and it was a smash hit. The public had been starved for romantic comedy, and theatre owners who had previously turned down Ross Hunter now had to deal with him on HIS terms.


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



Peter Ustinov joked about his daughter, born at the beginning of production, being in kindergarten by the time this movie was finished. When asked what her father did for a living, she would answer, "Spartacus".


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



The series' writers travelled around the U.S. looking for locations, about which to write episodes. Every episode was filmed on-location.


October 7, 1966 -
The Star Trek episode The Enemy Within premiered on this date. In it, a transporter mishap divides Captain Kirk into two versions of himself, one good and one evil, but neither is able to function separately for long.



The episode marks the first use of the line, “He’s dead, Jim.” The phrase is coined by the episode’s author, Richard Matheson.


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



According to William Friedkin, the significance of the straw hat being tossed onto the shelf of the rear window in Doyle and Russo's car was that at that time it was a universal signal in New York City that the undercover cops in the car were on duty.


Another failed ACME Product


Today in History:
October 7, 1849
-
On this date, Edgar Allan 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 68th birthday.



You might need to send him something this year; he may have already lost the US presidency.


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 men's public restroom all the time.



And so it goes


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