Which leads us to the fact that today is Global Handwashing Day. It is a campaign to motivate and mobilize millions around the world to wash their hands with soap, the campaign is dedicated to raising awareness of handwashing with soap as a key approach to disease prevention (now, more important than ever.) This years theme is - Unite for Universal Hand Hygiene.
Children suffer disproportionately from diarrheal diseases – with more than 3.5 million children under five dying every year from diarrhea and pneumonia-related diseases. The simple act of washing hands with soap can reduce the incidence of diarrhea rates among children under five by almost 50 %, and respiratory infections by nearly 25 %. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends washing for at least 20 seconds and suggests singing Happy Birthday twice to allow enough time to remove and rinse off germs.
Remind me not to shake hands with any children, people from Tunisia (or anyone, who has not gotten their boosters, for that matter.)
October 15, 1940 -
Two of the most famous men in the world, not only had superficially similar looks, most famously their mustaches, but were born only four days apart in April of 1889 and both grew up in relative poverty. One of them decides to take a huge risk and release a film taking advantage of this freakish similarity, The Great Dictator, on this date.
When Charles Chaplin first announced that he was going to make this film, the British government, whose policy at the time was one of appeasement towards Nazi Germany (remember peas in our time), announced that they would ban it. By the time of the film's release though, Britain was at war with Germany and in the midst of the blitz, so the government's attitude towards the film had completely changed toward a film with such obvious value as propaganda.
October 15, 1951 -
A former starlet convinced the alcoholic, womanizing head of a television network to run the TV version of her somewhat successful radio program.
I Love Lucy, the television situation comedy, starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, also featuring Vivian Vance and William Frawley, went on to run on CBS for 181 episodes (including the "lost" Christmas episode and original pilot).
Then, the show introduced three more seasons, running from 1957 to 1960, known as The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (while Ball and Arnaz go through an acrimonious divorce). I Love Lucy won five Emmy Awards and received numerous nominations. In 2002, it was ranked #2 on TV Guide's top 50 greatest shows of all time, behind Seinfeld and ahead of The Honeymooners. In 2007, it was placed on Time Magazine's (unranked) list of "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME".
I Love Lucy was the most-watched show in the United States in four of its six seasons, and was the first to end its run at the top of the ratings (to be matched only by The Andy Griffith Show and Seinfeld), although it did not have a formal series finale episode. Episodes of I Love Lucy are still syndicated in dozens of languages across the world.
October 15, 1959 -
(Speaking of Desilu,) The TV show The Untouchables with Robert Stack as Eliot Ness, premiered on ABC-TV on this date.
According to testimony from Aladena Fratianno, (Jimmy the Weasel), a Mafia boss-turned-FBI informant, the Chicago family of the Mafia ordered the assassination of producer Desi Arnaz, because they didn't like (a) the fact that the success of the show was focusing attention on the Mafia and (b) the show's portrayal of Italians. Fratianno said that two hitmen hid themselves near Arnaz's house one night waiting for him to show up, but he never did. Shortly afterwards, the assassination order was rescinded when it was realized that Arnaz's murder would cause the Mafia more trouble than it was worth.
October 15, 1954 -
The eponymously named series The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin premiered on ABC-TV on this date.
A popular children's record titled Rinny and Rusty and Rip was released in the 1950's about the three lead characters. It was a 78 rpm Golden Records release, sung by Anne Lloyd and The Sandpipers, with Mitch Miller and his orchestra.
October 15, 1965 -
The poker playing version of The Hustler, The Cincinnati Kid, directed by Norman Jewison, and starring Steve McQueen, Ann-Margret, Karl Malden, Tuesday Weld, Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell, Rip Torn, and Cab Calloway premiered in New Orleans on this date.
Mitzi Gaynor campaigned for the role of Lady Fingers, but it ended up going to Joan Blondell. Rumors abound as to why Blondell got the role, with the most common being that Gaynor and Ann-Margret did not quite get along. Joan Blondell was trained for her role as Lady Fingers by master card trickster and technical adviser Jay Ose.
October 15, 1974 -
Tom Waits releases his second album, The Heart of Saturday Night, on this date, written as a tribute to Beat novelist Jack Kerouac.
Speaking before the first-ever performance of the title song, which appeared on radio station KFPK, Waits said it was a tribute to "Kerouacians," meaning fans of American novelist Jack Kerouac. Kerouac's rambling, plain-language style, which sometimes incorporated elements of jazz improvisation, gave a mystical shine to the simplest aspects of American life. Other than Charles Bukowski, no other literary influence is more obvious to Waits' work, especially his earlier stuff.
October 15, 1981 -
New Line Cinema released the comedy film The Evil Dead, directed by Sam Raimi and starring Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, and Betsy Baker, on this date in the US.
Bruce Campbell put up his family's property in Northern Michigan as collateral so that Sam Raimi not only could finish the film, but also blow it up to 35 mm film which was required for theatrical release. Raimi was so grateful for his financial contribution, he credited him as co-producer.
October 15, 1988 –
UB40's cover of Neil Diamond's Red Red Wine reached the top of the Billboard Charts on this date.
UB40 recorded this as a cover of the Tony Tribe 1969 reggae version, which reached #46 in the UK charts. The band did not realize until after it topped the charts that Neil Diamond wrote it and originally recorded it.
October 15, 1995 -
Paul McCartney and his wife Linda appear on an episode of The Simpsons where they help Lisa become a vegetarian.
Paul explains that if you play Maybe I'm Amazed backwards, you'll hear a recipe for lentil soup. (Now with less pork in it!)
October 15, 2006 -
Patti Smith closed down the celebrated Manhattan music club CBGB, playing the last show at the venue.
The club closes after an extended dispute between club owner Hilly Kristal and the Bowery Residents Committee. Rock fans try to preserve the building as a historical landmark, but those efforts fail and a men's clothing store moves in.
Don't forget to tune in to The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour today
Today in History:
It's the Feast Day of one of my favorite saints - Saint Teresa of Avila (I've mentioned her at least twice this year.)
She died in the arms of her close friend Anne of Saint Bartholomew, allegedly from Transverberation ("the crossing of verbs"). Her pierced heart is on display at Alba de Tormes, so if you're the kind of person that's interested in 400-year-old pierced human hearts you'll probably want to pay a visit. (You'll probably find it in the "Pierced Internal Organ Room" of the "Three-to-Five Hundred Estactic Orgasm Wing.")
Friedrich Nietzsche, who was born on this day in 1844, apparently shared her sentiments if not her tactics. Being Germanic in nature, he though God was dead so he could not experience his golden shaft of light, but that's another story.
October 15, 1582 -
Finally, with the formal implementation of the Gregorian calendar by Pope Gregory XIII, this day actually exists in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
The calendar jumped from October 4 directly to October 15. People are generally relieved but never quite get over the feeling that they missed something during those 11 days.
October 15, 1783 -
Frenchman Jean Pilâtre de Rozier made a tethered, captive-balloon ascent, in the gardens of La Muette on this date. The Montgolfier (of Monty Python fame)-made balloon, Aerostat Reveillon, carrying Pilâtre, first man to leave the earth, rose to the end of its 250 ft tether.
October 15, 1893 -
The New York Times declared Coney Island “Sodom-by-the-Sea" for the thrilling rides that let men and women clutch each other.
The Elephantine Colossus, a 200-foot-tall elephant-shaped hotel had a howdah on its back, topped with a gilded crescent was built on Surf Avenue, in 1885. It housed a concert hall and events bazaar in its belly, a museum in what would be its left lung. Its head was an observatory and its eyes were telescopes; you could climb up and peer out at the surrounding city. With 31 rooms and 12 stories, its front legs housed a cigar store and diorama, and its hind legs had spiral staircases leading to the rooms contained above. By 1893, though, tourists got tired of the gimmick, and prostitutes started moving in. It became a giant elephant-shaped brothel. “Seeing the elephant” became local parlance for picking up prostitutes.
October 15, 1917 -
The German spy Mata Hari, a Dutchwoman named Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, was executed by the French on this date. There wasn't much actual evidence of espionage, but she had been seen naked with German officers and the French considered this distasteful enough to kill her.
(I think finally this appears to be the actual date of her execution. Sorry about that, Margaretha.)
October 15, 1924 -
President Calvin Coolidge declared the Statue of Liberty to be a national monument on this date.
October 15, 1928 -
The airship LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin completed its first transatlantic crossing when it arrives in the United States at NAS Lakehurst, New Jersey four days after leaving Friedrichshafen, Germany on this date.
The Naval Air Station Lakehurst, located in Lakehurst, New Jersey, was the western terminus for the commercial transatlantic flights of the German dirigibles Graf Zeppelin and, later, the Hindenburg.
October 15, 1964 -
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was too busy pounding his shoe at every official meeting to realize that he was ousted
and replaced by Alexei N. Kosygin as premier and by Leonid I. Brezhnev as Communist Party secretary.
October 15, 1990 -
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev gave up the practice of shoe banging practices of the Soviet Premier all together
and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on this date.
October 15, 1991 -
Despite sexual harassment allegations by Anita Hill, The Senate confirmed Judge Clarence Thomas as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by a vote of 52-48, the closest confirmation vote in court history (at the time.)
October 15, 2002 -
Former ImClone Chief Executive Officer Samuel Waksal pleaded guilty to insider trading as part of an ongoing investigation into the trading of shares from his biotech company on this date.
And this wasn't a good thing for his friend, home decor diva, Martha Stewart.
Before your go - Huzzah, a new Puddles Pity Party song. A cover of Black Sabbath's War Pigs:
Do you think Ozzy ever thought this excellent video would ever be made? (Still, such a relevant song.)
And so it goes
1 comment:
the crossing of verbs, indeed
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