They said that people should turn off the light and go to bed early, because the night is the Mice's Wedding and one shouldn't disturb them. The other reason people should turn out the lights, so the mice can’t see their wedding, which would slow down mice breeding. In the old farmer society, people would leave a few grains of rice or cake crumbs in the corner of a room for the mice at night.
Today is sometimes know as Chigou's Day and Chigou literally means "red dog". Red Dog is the name of the God of Anger, who brings bad luck to people. The third day of the Chinese New Year is an ominous day, so there are many other things people are forbidden to do according to the traditional custom. For example, on this day, people are not allowed to clean the house, make a fire, draw water and so on.
Today is National Sweater Day in Canada. The first Thurday in February IS the best day to wear a sweater, striped of not, for our neighbor to the North -
Since 2010, WWF has encouraged more than a million Canadians to show their support for limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by turning down their thermostats by the same amount (or more) and wearing their favorite sweaters to stay warm.
It's' Elmo's Birthday!
It's worth noting, Elmo (himself) didn't do a damn thing to those young men; he's just a puppet.
February 3, 1932 -
Paramount Pictures released Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express, starring Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook and Anna Mae Wong in Los Angeles on this date.
The extras in the film are mostly speaking Cantonese - a Chinese dialect used mainly in southern China. If the film were to be more accurate, the extras would be speaking Mandarin, but most Chinese residents in the Los Angeles area (who worked as film extras) spoke Cantonese, making Josef von Sternberg use Cantonese.
February 3, 1944 -
Robert Stevenson's classic presentation of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, starring Orson Wells, and Joan Fontaine, premiered in NYC on this date. (Look for Elizabeth Taylor in an uncredited role in the film.)
This is the second time Joan Fontaine plays a young woman, living in a dark mansion, plagued by the hidden presence of the master's wife: Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca is the other.
February 3, 1945 -
Walt Disney's The Three Caballeros, premiered in the US, on the date.
During the final years of World War II, the character of Panchito Pistoles introduced in this film served as a minor military symbol. He was the mascot of the 201st Fighter Squadron, a Mexican fighter airplane squadron that served that assisted the American forces in the recapture of the Philippines. The likeness of Panchito was also painted as nose art on an American bomber airplane, a North American B-25 Mitchell. The original airplane was scrapped in 1949 but another B-25 Mitchell was fashioned into a replica of it with the same Panchito image. It is still in civilian service and appears in air-shows.
February 3, 1951 -
Another great Sylvester cartoon, Canned Feud, premiered on this date.
The kitchen shown sports the very latest in accessories, including a Sunbeam mixmaster, with attachments. The adult cinema audiences would have noticed and appreciated this attention to detail.
February 3, 1960 -
Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita, starring Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg premiered in Rome on this date.
When shooting the famous Fontana di Trevi scene, director Federico Fellini complained that the water in the fountain looked dirty. A representative of Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) present at the shooting was able to supply the film team with some of the airline's green sea dye marker (for use in case of an emergency landing at sea). This was used to color the water, and the director was satisfied.
February 3, 1964 -
Just prior to the Beatles invasion of the US, Meet the Beatles went 'gold' on this date.
Meet the Beatles! was The Beatles first "official" album in America, released on January 20, 1964 by Capitol Records, the sister company within EMI to their British label, Parlophone.
February 3, 1973 –
Elton John' song Crocodile Rock became his first US Billboard Hot 100 hit on this date.
There is a distinct '50s musical theme in this song. Elton said that it contains flavors of a lot of his favorite early rock songs, including Little Darlin', At The Hop and Oh Carol, as well as songs by The Beach Boys and Eddie Cochran. The title is a play on the Bill Haley song See You Later Alligator - Haley's Rock Around The Clock even gets a mention, as that's what the other kids were listening to while our hero was doing the Crocodile Rock.
February 3, 1978 -
The TV-movie Dead Man's Curve, the first to deal with the tragic Jan & Dean story, premieres on ABC-TV on this date.
Wolfmand Jack, Dick Clark, and Beach Boys Mike Love and Bruce Johnston, appear in the movie. In the film, Wolfman Jack introduces himself to Jan and Dean in a small town as "Bob Smith", manager and The Jackal at the local radio station. Wolfman Jack's real name is Robert Weston Smith.
Another moment of edifying culture
Today in History:
February 3, 1468 -
About 600 years ago a child was born in the city of Mainz, in what is today Germany. His name was Johannes Gutenberg. He worked as a goldsmith and gem cutter until finally converting a wine press into a printing press.
He printed 200 copies of the Bible and gradually went broke. He died on this date.
February 3, 1637 -
Considered the first major speculative bubble, the sale and collection of tulips in the Netherlands reached extraordinary heights before collapsing spectacularly on this date.
At the height of the tulip mania, one bulb could sell for more than ten times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. And you could not smoke that crap.
February 3, 1882 -
After his death, Jumbo's skeleton was donated to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The elephant's heart was sold to Cornell University. Jumbo's hide was stuffed by William J. Critchley and Carl Akeley, both of Ward's Natural Science, and the mounted specimen traveled with Barnum's circus for a number of years.
In 1889, Barnum donated the stuffed Jumbo to Tufts University, where it was displayed until destroyed by a fire in 1975, coincidentally a fate that befell many of Barnum's exhibits during his own lifetime. The great elephant's ashes are kept in a 14-ounce Peter Pan Crunchy Peanut Butter jar in the office of the Tufts athletic director.
February 3, 1913 -
In one of the blackest days in U.S. history, the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on this date. This amendment created the income tax.
Please check on your Qanon supporting neighbor; they might do themselves harm on this day. You know what, upon further thought, leave them be.
The United States broke diplomatic relations with Germany on February 3, 1917. The Germans were very upset by this and tried to make America jealous by flirting with Mexico. Britain overheard Germany's sweet talk and told America everything she'd heard. Unfortunately for Germany, however, it didn't make America jealous. It made America angry. A few months later the United States declared war on Germany.
(Less than two years later, World War I ended with Germany's defeat. This made Germany upset again, and they spent the next two decades planning how they'd get even. Eventually this led to World War II, which also ended, once again, with Germany's defeat. Germany remains upset to this day, but, having been deprived of an army, poses no serious threat to anyone but France.)
February 3, 1927 -
Nobody in America, in the modern generation, has read their own mythology or legends.
Kenneth Anger, American underground avant-garde film-maker, author of the notorious book Hollywood Babylon and professional Dan Rather impersonator, was spawned on this date.
February 3, 1943 -
The US transport ship Dorchester, which was carrying troops to Greenland, sank after being hit by a torpedo. Four Army chaplains (Rev. Lt. George L. Fox, a Methodist minister; Rabbi Lt. Alexander D. Goode; Father Lt. John P. Washington, a Roman Catholic priest; and Rev. Lt. Clark V. Poling, a Protestant minister from the Dutch Reformed Church) gave their life jackets to four other men, and went down with the ship.
Of the 902 men aboard the U.S.A.T. Dorchester, only 230 survived. Before boarding the Dorchester back in January, Chaplain Poling had asked his father to pray for him, "Not for my safe return, that wouldn't be fair. Just pray that I shall do my duty...never be a coward...and have the strength, courage and understanding of men. Just pray that I shall be adequate."
February 3, 1956 -
It's Nathan Lane's birthday today.
Pound for pound, one of the funniest guest on a talk show.
February 3, 1959 -
The Day the Music Died:
A small plane carrying The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson), Buddy Holly and Richie Valens crashed near Mason City, Iowa, while en route to a show in Fargo, North Dakota. Richardson had developed a case of the flu during the tour (erroneously thought to have been caused by riding on the unheated bus) and asked one of Holly's bandmates, Waylon Jennings, for his seat on the plane; Jennings agreed to give up the seat. Dion DiMucci of Dion and The Belmonts, who was the fourth headliner on the tour, was approached to join the flight as well; however, the price of $36 was too much. Dion had heard his parents argue for years over the $36 rent for their apartment and could not bring himself to pay an entire month's rent for a short plane ride.
The plane crashed during a blizzard, smashing into a cornfield at over 220 mph, flipping over on itself and tossing the passengers into the air. The victims were jettisoned from the plane, landing yards from the wreckage, and lay there for ten hours as snowdrifts formed around them. Because of the weather, no one reached the crash site until later in the morning.
February 3, 1971 -
New York Police Officer Frank Serpico was shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn on this date and survived to later testify against police corruption.
Many believe the incident proves that NYPD officers tried to kill him.
And so it goes
1 comment:
a 14-ounce Peter Pan Crunchy Peanut Butter jar in the office of the Tufts athletic director indeed
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