The amateur drinkers (in various states of holiday undress) are once again back in Manhattan this year: they will be in Midtown and Lower Manhattan, stating at 10 AM. I can take comfort that some of them may die, choking on their own (or someone else's) vomit later in the day. (Ask me how I feel about Santacon.)
Today is also National Lager Day. Let us celebrate the third most popular beverage after water and tea. I'm hoping it co-incidental, but suspicious of the fact that it is celebrated around the same time as Santa-con.
For those of you who need to know - Lager is one of the two main types of beer, the other being ale. The difference between lager and ale is that lager is fermented and conditioned at low temperatures while ale is brewed using a warm fermentation. Pale lager is the most widely consumed style of beer in the world. So drink responsibly, especially those of you participating in Santa-con.
On a more serious note, today is International Human Rights Day.
The Declaration consists of a preamble and 30 articles that set out a broad range of fundamental human rights and freedoms to which all of us, everywhere around the world, are entitled. It guarantees our rights without distinction of nationality, place of residence, gender, national or ethnic origin, religion, language, or any other status.
December 10, 1948 -
Another Preston Sturges Champagne cocktail laced with strychnine, Unfaithfully Yours, opened in the US on this date.
Even though it is widely hailed as a classic today, the film was something of a box office disappointment when released. The fantasy flashbacks were thought to be too experimental for it's time.
December 10, 1955 –
The Mighty Mouse Playhouse began a long-standing 'Saturday Morning Cartoon’ tradition on CBS-TV, on this date.
Terrytoons Studios produced 80 theatrical Mighty Mouse cartoons between 1942 to 1961, which were shown on this cartoon TV series on Saturday mornings. Each episode contained three Mighty Mouse theatrical cartoons and a one-shot one (especially with Heckle and Jeckle).
December 10, 1967 -
Julie Andrews!
Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in their first starring comedy, Bedazzled, opened in the US on this date.
At the time of its release, blasphemy was considered a common-law offense in the U.K., and the British Board of Film Censors were concerned that this movie's premise would offend religious groups. Stanley Donen defended this movie against such claims. To prove his point, Donen claimed that he screened this movie to a London rector and the Arch Deacon of Westminster Abbey, both of whom took no offense to this movie. After that assurance, the case was dropped.
December 10, 1968 -
Carol Reed's musical adaptation of the Charles Dicken's classic, Oliver!, starring Ron Moody, Oliver Reed and Mark Lester, opened in the US on this date.
The whole of Bloomsbury Square in London was recreated on the Shepperton Studios backlot for the Who Will Buy sequence. In fact, the entire Shepperton Studios was given over to the production of Oliver!
December 10, 1974 -
The names of the reindeer are consistent with the Clement Moore poem and other sources. Vixen is the baby reindeer who takes Jingle & Jangle to Southtown (and gets sick). Dasher is the one who takes Santa down to Southtown and back. Finally, Blitzen takes Mrs. Claus to pick up Iggy & the Elves and then to visit the Mizer Brothers.
December 10, 1974 -
Nobody will ever notice that. Filmmaking is not about the tiny details. It's about the big picture
Ed Wood Jr., either the world's greatest visionary director or the worst filmmaker of all time, suffered a fatal heart attack on this date. At the time of his death, the industry newspaper, Variety, failed to run his obituary.
December 10, 1974 –
The classic disaster movie, Towering Inferno, opened in NYC on this date.
After seeing this film, novelist Roderick Thorp had a dream that same night about a man being chased through a skyscraper by gun-wielding assailants. This was the inspiration for his 1979 book Nothing Lasts Forever which eventually was made into the film Die Hard.
December 10, 1982 -
A paean to B movies, It Came from Hollywood, opened in the US on this date. (Do yourself a favor; find some time today to watch the whole film if you haven't seen it.)
Sadly this was never released on DVD. Paramount had planned to release the film on DVD in 2002. Due to copyright issues with several of the clips featured in the film, the release was ultimately canceled.
December 10, 1984 –
On a very cold night 38 years ago, Francis Ford Coppola's Cotton Club opened in NYC. (I can remember waiting on line to see the film on the opening day at Radio City Music Hall.)
Although the film features several fictional murders, it is associated with one real-life murder. When Robert Evans was raising money for the film, he became associated with a promoter named Roy Radin. Radin was reportedly murdered on May 13, 1983, but his body was not found for several weeks. Evans was not accused of murder but was implicated in the investigation because he was dealing with Radin and Karen Jacobs-Greenberger, who introduced Radin to Evans. She was convicted of ordering the murder of Radin and is serving a life sentence for the crime.
It been 38 years since Do They Know It's Christmas, the charity single by the all-star group Band Aid, was released.
As of the last check, The Band Aid/ Live Aid initiatives have raised over $200 million dollars. Not bad for basically a very crappy tune.
Don't forget to tune in to another Holiday edition of ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour today
Today in History:
December 10, 1520 -
The heretic Martin Luther burnt the papal bull (Exsurge Domine), on this date, issued by Leo X, demanding an end to his heresies. Luther had published 95 points against the practice of granting indulgences, and the Catholic Church only had 94 points in favor of them.
December 10, 1830 -
Come slowly – Eden!
Lips unused to Thee –
Bashful – sip thy Jessamines –
As the fainting Bee –
Reaching late his flower,
Round her chamber hums –
Counts his nectars –
Enters – and is lost in Balms.
Poet Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts on this date. Only about 10 of her poems were published in her lifetime, and those were submitted for publication without her permission. After her death in 1886, more than 1,800 of her poems, which she had bound together in bundles, were discovered and published.
December 10, 1848 -
Napoleon III, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte), was elected president of France. By 1852, he dismantled the Republic and replaced it with the Second Empire of France, with himself as emperor.
December 10, 1936 -
Edward VIII, signed the letter of abdication to the English throne (which took effect on the next day,) to marry the twice divorced, horsey faced (and possibly transvestite) - the woman he loved on this date.
December 10, 1954 -
The patent for the first commercial, digital and programmable autonomous machine (U.S. Patent No. 2,988,237) was filed today. The robot was built by American inventor George Devol and named the Unimate.
It was not made to look like a human, but was instead designed for use, having just one arm and one hand.
December 10, 1954 -
To determine whether or not a pilot can safely eject from an aircraft traveling at supersonic speeds, Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Stapp, a flight surgeon, rides in a rocket sled that accelerates to 632mph in just five seconds then stops in just 1.25 seconds at Holloman Air Force Base, in New Mexico, on this date.
The trip exposes him to forty Gs, the equivalent of a car crashing into a brick wall at 120 mph. This was one crazy/ brave SOB.
December 10, 1958 -
Krishna Venta (born Francis Herman Pencovic) died in Chatsworth, California in a suicide bombing when two disgruntled former followers (Peter Duma Kamenoff and Ralph Muller) who, although never offering any documentary evidence to support their claims, charged that Venta had both mishandled cult funds and been intimate with their wives.
This is what comes from the laying on of hands with cult members' wives.
December 10, 1967 -
Soul singer Otis Redding plus four members of the Bar-Kays were killed when his airplane crashes into Lake Monona near Madison, Wisconsin on this date.
So, poor Otis was laid out all over the dock of the bay.
December 10, 1973 –
CBGB’s opened in lower Manhattan, in New York City. Named for Country, Blue Grass, and Blues, on this date. The club originally intends to feature those musical styles, but becomes a mecca for punk rock and New Wave bands.
There were two rules: 1) bands had to move their own equipment, and 2) bands had to play mostly original songs – no cover bands – because the owner couldn’t afford to pay ASCAP royalty fees.
December 10, 1993 -
Adolf Hitler was baptized by proxy into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in their London temple on this date. Mormons also continued to vicariously baptism victims of the Holocaust over the strenuous objections of various Jewish groups such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center (even Simon Wiesenthal has had a baptism performed for himself after his death.)
December 10, 2013 -
The Higgs Boson is a particle that gives mass to other particles. It is sometimes referred to as the "God Particle." It was named after Peter Higgs, one of six physicists who, in 1964, proposed the mechanism that suggested the particle.
On this date, Peter Higgs and François Englert, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work and prediction.
There are 8 days until Hanukkah
Christmas is in 15 days!
And so it goes
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