There is a story about the Lantern Festival. A beautiful heavenly bird flew down a village and was killed. The God of Heaven was very angry and wanted to burn down the entire village on the 15th lunar day. One wise villager advised every family hang candle lanterns around the house, carry lanterns on the street, and light fireworks outside on the 15th lunar night. The soldiers of the God of Heaven saw the village was on fire from the heaven, and returned back to the heaven. The village survived and people keep the lantern activity on this day every year.
Lantern owners write riddles on paper notes and pasted them upon the colorful lanterns. People crowd round to guess the riddles. If someone thinks they have the right answer, they can pull the riddle off and go to the lantern owner to check their answer. If the answer is right, there is usually a small gift as a prize. To close out the holiday, please enjoy this lantern riddle from ACME: They look like twins, both tall and sturdy. They work together and go everywhere together. But they only go near solid food and do not care for soup. Who are they?
It's Nirvana Day (for some people),
Today is also the ancient Roman feast of Lupercalia.
Hopefully you had a very nice time yesterday and didn't get any of these gifts:
OK, swipe you nose, wash you face and get back out there.
February 15, 1950 -
Walt Disney's 12th animated feature, Cinderella was premiered in Boston, Massachusetts on this date.
Walt Disney had not had a huge hit since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. At the time, his studio, Walt Disney Productions, was over $4 million in debt and was on the verge of bankruptcy. Walt Disney and his animators turned back to feature film production in 1948 after producing a string of package films with the idea of adapting Charles Perrault's Cendrillon into a motion picture. The production of this film was regarded as a major gamble on Disney's part. At a cost of nearly $3,000,000, Disney insiders claimed that if this movie had failed at the box office, it would have been the end of the Walt Disney Studios.
February 15, 1975 –
Linda Ronstadt's song You’re No Good went to No. # 1 on the Billboard charts on this date.
This song had been around for a while before Linda Ronstadt took it to the top of the chart. It was originally recorded by Dee Dee Warwick in 1963. Her version was produced by the famous team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, but it stalled at #117. Betty Everett had more success with her version, which went to #51 in 1964.
February 15, 1985 -
Don't you forget about me -
It was originally suggested that there would be several sequels to this movie, occurring every ten years, in which The Breakfast Club would get back together. This did not come to pass, due to the volatile relationship between John Hughes and Judd Nelson (John Bender). Hughes stated that he would never work with Nelson again. Also, it was unclear whether or not Hughes still held ill will against his oft-cast starlet, Molly Ringwald (Claire Standish). They had a falling out in the late eighties, after Ringwald decided to move on from the teen film genre to pursue more adult roles, thus severing her relationship with Hughes.
February 15, 1987 -
Broadcast over the course of seven nights, Amerika, premiered on ABC-TV on this date.
Amerika sparked much controversy from many camps long before it even aired. Many liberals dismissed the mini-series as right wing paranoia, while many conservatives complained that the Soviet brutality that was depicted was seriously underplayed. Several re-writes and production delays resulted. Many objected to it on the basis that it could damage American-Soviet relations. The United Nations publicly objected to the depiction of United Nations Peacekeeping Forces as a Soviet controlled occupying force.
February 15, 2005 -
The Norah Jones mellow, jazzy album Come Away With Me is certified Diamond for sales of over 10 million in America on this date.
The Come Away With Me album is a rare massive seller with no big hits. The only song to land in the Hot 100 was Don't Know Why, which made #30. The single, Come Away with Me was the third single, released in December 2002 after the album had been out for nine months. By this time, it has already sold millions of copies, but many were just discovering it.
Today's moment of Zen
Today in History -
Galileo Galilei was born on February 15, 1564. He worked on the improvement of a telescope with which he later discovered craters on the moon, the satellites of Jupiter, and every luscious detail of the girl next door's nubile young form. Galileo's astronomical observations seemed to confirm Copernicus' theory that the Earth went around the Sun rather than the other way around. Unfortunately, Copernicus' theory was heresy and therefore not supposed to be confirmed.
The church was in a tough spot. Galileo was every bit as Bad and Heretical as Copernicus had been, but they didn't want to inspire a bunch of angry Germans to start another church, as Martin Luther's followers had not long after the church's previous brush with Astronomy.
High-ranking church officials pleaded with the astronomer: "Come on, Galileo." "Please, Galileo." "Knock it off, Galileo."
But he wouldn't stop talking about the Earth spinning around the Sun. He couldn't even be persuaded to talk about something else, such as sports, the weather, or the girl next door's nubile young form. So they threatened to kill him.
At this point Galileo remembered that the Sun actually did revolve around the Earth, and the church rewarded his improved memory by giving him free room and board for the rest of his life (a level of hospitality sometimes referred to as "house arrest".)
February 15, 1758 -
Mustard was first advertised for sale in America on this date, by Benjamin Jackson who had set up business in Globe Mills, Germantown, Philadelphia, selling mustard packed in glass bottles with his label on them.
In the Philadelphia Chronicle, he claimed to be "the original establisher of the mustard manufactory in American, and ... at present, the only manufacturer on the continent," and that he had brought the art with him from London to America. (And don't worry, I'm sure that clown is long dead by now.)
February 15, 1882 -
A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams....
John Barrymore, noted thespian and alcoholic, was born into the bosom of his famous theatrical clan on this date.
February 15, 1898 –
The situation is immortalized in the film Citizen Kane with the lines, "You supply the prose poetry. We'll supply the war."
The first teddy bear is introduced in America by two Russian immigrants, Morris and Rose Michtom, who own a toy and novelty store in Brooklyn, New York on this date in 1903.
While bear hunting in Mississippi in 1902, President Teddy Roosevelt decided to spare the life of a bear cub which had been orphaned during the hunt. The event was the subject of a cartoon in the Washington Post seen by the Michtoms. Inspired by the cartoon, Mrs. Michtom made a toy bear which became enormously popular with the public in short order.
Now you know.
February 15, 1933 -
President-elect Franklin Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami on this date. Giuseppe Zangara, an unemployed New Jersey bricklayer from Italy, fired five pistol shots at the back of President-elect Roosevelt's head from only twenty-five feet away.
While all five rounds missed their target, each bullet found a separate victim. One of these was Mayor Anton Cermak of Chicago. Gunman Giuseppe Zangara was executed a little more than four weeks later, on March 20, 1933.
February 15, 1936 -
At a speech in Berlin on this date, Hitler confronts German industry with the challenge of creating the Volkswagen.
Thus Ferdinand Porsche designed the Beetle which is now widely seen as the final solution to fahrvergnugen.
February 15, 1961 -
The U.S. figure skating team is obliterated when Sabena Flight 548 crashes in Belgium on this date.
The crash was the first fatal accident involving a Boeing 707 in regular passenger service.
February 15, 1995 -
Kevin Mitnick, at the time the most wanted computer hacker in history, was arrested in Raleigh, North Carolina for various offenses, one of which was breaking into security specialist Tsutomu Shimomura's computer on this date.
Kids, sometimes, crimes does pay.
February 15, 2005 -
You Tube, the video-sharing website, was launched by three former PayPal employees on this date. The first video was uploaded on April 23, 2005.
I can't confirm that most videos posted on You Tube are any more interesting than the one posted above.
And so it goes.
1 comment:
crimes does pay, indeed. or crime do pay.
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