These are the times that try mens souls

(We are moving the other kid into her school, so today will be an abbreviated posting.)

Today is National Soft Serve Ice Cream Day. Soft Serve Ice Cream has been around since the 1930s. There are conflicting reports of the origins of the dessert. In 1934, Tom Carvel, the founder of eponymous ice cream brand and franchise, had to sell melting ice cream on a parking lot because his ice cream truck had a flat tire. He noticed that people were delighted with soft frozen dessert and concluded that it was a potentially good business idea.



Dairy Queen also claims to have invented soft ice cream as an experiment. Owners J.F. McCullough and his son, Alex, decided to find out if customers preferred ice cream before it was completely frozen, which was how they liked it best.



Just in case this comes up in conversation - It takes 12 pounds of milk to produce just 1 gallon of ice cream. The average American eats 45.8 pints of ice cream a year. Hence, the average American forces those poor dairy cows to produce 68.7 pounds of milk a year to satisfy the wanton frozen cravings of Americans.

So now you know.


August 19, 1932 -
The Marx Brothers' fourth movie, Horse Feathers, went into general release on this date.



According to Groucho Marx, when Thelma Todd fell out of the boat, he kept rowing as she cried for help, not knowing she really couldn't swim. Crew members got her out of the water.


August 19, 1949 -
The first filmed recording of CBS color television was made in Washington D.C. using a U.S. Navy-designed Berndt-Maurer camera on this date.



The next week, on August 25, RCA announced their Dot Sequential color system which is the one we used today. CBS was making color with a system that used a spinning red, blue and green color wheel on the cameras and receivers, so the CBS system was mechanical where the RCA system was all electronic.


August 19, 1964 -
The Beatles first US tour began in San Francisco, California with their concert at the Cow Palace.



They played ten songs to a crowd of over 17,000. The Beatles returned there for another concert in 1965.


August 19, 1969 -
David Crosby, Steven Stills, Joni Mitchell, and the Jefferson Airplane appeared on the Dick Cavett Show, giving a first-hand account of the Woodstock festival that took place over the weekend.



Jefferson Airplane’s performance of We Can Be Together marked the first time the word “fuck” was uttered on live US television.


August 19, 1972 -
NBC-TV presented The Midnight Special for the first time on this date.



John Denver hosted the first episode of the show with guests including: Mama Cass, The Everly Brothers, The Isley Brothers, Harry Chapin, Linda Ronstadt and Argent. Helen Reddy was also a musical guest on the show, but did not host this first episode.


August 19, 1981 -
Sidney Lumet's crime drama, Prince of the City, starring Treat Williams and Jerry Orbach premiered on this date in NYC.



Brian De Palma and David Rabe had spent a year and a half developing the script for this Prince of the City with no production movement, De Palma and Rabe decided to put the development of the script indefinitely. David Rabe was hired by Universal Studios to to write Scarface and Brian De Palma was offered to direct, David Rabe and De Palma were excited to work together again. Al Pacino read the script and was unhappy with the script, Pacino told the producers and studio how unhappy he was and of course the studio would side with their movie star. So David Rabe quit and De Palma quit with him. De Palma and David Rabe went back and revived Prince of the City. Sidney Lumet took over Scarface as director with Oliver Stone as screenwriter and together spent a year developing the Scarface script together. Universal Studios and Lumet ultimately parted ways over creative difference. Lumet had read the script that De Palma and Rabe had wrote for Prince of the City, he expressed his interest in directing and the studio fired De Palma and Rabe and gave the film to Lumet. Lumet hired his own writer rewrote the script and made the film. The twist is Universal Studios came back to De Palma and asked him to direct Scarface again.


August 19, 1988 -
Orion Pictures released Jonathan Demme's gangster comedy, Married to the Mob, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Matthew Modine, Dean Stockwell, and Alec Baldwin, on this date in the US.



Matthew Modine initially didn't think that there was anything funny about the script. According to Modine, he was depressed while making this film because of his rough experience making Full Metal Jacket.


Another unimportant moment in history


Today in History:
August 19, 1601 -
The end of the 16th century was dominated by the personality of Michael the Brave. He became Voivode of Wallachia in 1593, joined the Christian League - an anti-Ottoman coalition initiated by the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire and he succeeded, following heavy battles (Calugareni, Giurgiu) to actually regain the independence of his country.



In 1599-1600 he united for the first time in history all the territories inhabited by Romanians, proclaiming himself "prince of Wallachia, Transylvania and the whole of Moldavia." The domestic situation was very complex, the neighboring great-powers - the Ottoman Empire, Poland, the Hapsburg Empire - were hostile and joined forces to overthrow him; so this union was short-lived as Michael the Brave was assassinated in 1601 on this date.

This bit of historical fluff was totally unnecessary but the next time you want to shut up some snooty blowhard, ask them to name their favorite Voivode of the sixteenth century.


August 19, 1934 -
The All-American Soap Box Derby, the first official soap box derby, took place for the first time in Dayton, Ohio.



The race is usually held annually with the World Championship race held every July.


August 19, 1934 -
Adolf Hitler won absolute power when 89.9% of the German electorate consolidates the positions of President and Chancellor into a single office, occupied by him (amazing, given the fact that Hitler was not officially a German citizen.)



Years after the war, many Germans swear that they voted for another candidate but the 'whole hanging voter' thing got in the way.


August 19, 1936 -
Federico Garcia Lorca retired from his position as Spain's most celebrated poet (and playwright) in order to become a gravedigger.



This proved to have been a poor career move: his Fascist supervisors were so displeased with his work that they shot him to death after he had dug only one grave on this date.


August 19, 1946 -
Bubba is all of 76 today!



William Jefferson Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III) 42nd President of the United States of America was born on this date.


August 19, 1960 -
The Soviet Union convicted U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage on this date, sentencing him to three years in prison and seven years of hard labor.



All because he didn't jab himself with the poison needle; another example of our faulty military training.


August 19, 1960 -
The Soviet Union launched Sputnik V into orbit on this date. On board are two dogs (Belka and Strelka,) along with two unnamed rats and 40 mice. The menagerie was recovered safely the next day from the landing capsule.



The two rats were later appointed wardens of gulags in Siberia. Belka entered politics and nearly became Soviet Premier in the late 60s, unfortunately he developed mange and had to retire from public life. Strelka enjoyed a long career on Russian TV, appearing in such classics as, I Love Lenin and 14's Company. Scandal ruined his later career when doctored photos appeared of Strelka humping the leg of Gore Vidal.


August 19, 1977 -
I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it.



One of the world's leading commentator on the human condition, Julius Marx gave up the ghost on this date.


August 19, 2018 -
If it wasn't so horrifyingly grotesque, it would be funny -



Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's lawyer claims in interview with NBC Chuck Todd that "truth isn't truth," on this date.



And so it goes.