When was the last time you had millet?

(Still working through some technical issues)

The Eighth day of the Lunar New Year is believed to be the birthday of millet, an important crop in ancient China. According to the folk proverbs, if this day is bright and clear, then this whole year will be a harvest year; however, if this day is cloudy or even rainy, then the whole year will suffer from poor harvest. (It sounds more poetic in the original language.)

The eighth day of Lunar New Year is the the birthday of Yen-Lo King, who is 5th king of Legendary Hell in fifth palace. The fifth palace of the hell is under the northern-east side of the big scorching and burning stone in the sea. (Location, location, location.)

The palace has 64,000 square miles long. It contains 16 divisions of the small hells. (Be thankful you don't have to clean it. That's what all those idle hands are for.)

Yen-Lo King was originally in charge of the first palace of the hell. He sent the dead who died of injustice back to the human world to have a chance to clear up the false charge many times. Then he was demoted to the fifth palace of the hell. (At least he didn't have to test rectal thermometers.)



The day is also referred to as The Completion Day - people should return from the holiday vacation and go back to work. All the meat and cake prepared for Chinese New Year should finish on this day. Everything should back to normal.

On the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, some people release pet fish of birds into the wild to show respect for nature.


I nearly forgot, today is Hansen's Disease Day. Celebrate World Leprosy Day - be like St. Francis - lick a leper's sores.



Or not.


If you are asking, where have all our snows of yesterday gone

We were waiting for a snow storm last year. Currently, it hasn't snowed in 325 days. We will beat the record for most snowless days next Sunday (if it doesn't snow) with 333 days. Maybe it will snow again someday here in the city


Two households, both alike in dignity
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife









William Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet was probably first performed on this date (unless it wasn't).

I don't know, I wasn't there, were you?


January 29, 1959 -
With a budget that exceeded $6 million, Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty premiered in Los Angeles on this date.



Eleanor Audley--one of Walt Disney's favorite voice artists, most memorably as Lady Tremaine in Cinderella, initially turned the part of Maleficent down, much to Disney's surprise. As it later transpired, Audley was in the midst of battling a bout of tuberculosis and did not want to tax her voice too much. Fortunately, she recovered and accepted the part.


January 29, 1964 -
Introducing us to saving our precious bodily fluids and the rule about no fighting in the War room, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was released in the United States, on this date.



George C. Scott was reputedly annoyed that Stanley Kubrick was pushing him to overact for his role. While he vowed never to work with Kubrick again, Scott eventually saw this as one of his favorite performances.


January 29, 1977 -
The Rose Royce song Car Wash, went to No. #1 on this date. The soundtrack album for the film Car Wash, went gold as well.



Norman Whitfield, who wrote many Motown classics, was commissioned to write songs for the soundtrack of the movie Car Wash. He was having a meal of Kentucky Fried Chicken while watching a basketball game, when inspiration struck. He wrote the lyrics on the bag containing the chicken.


January 29, 1983 -
The Australian group, Men At Work's song Down Under reached #1 on the UK pop music chart.



Barry Humphries is an Australian entertainer who has created many popular characters, including Dame Edna Everidge. He was also the voice of Bruce the Shark in the movie Finding Nemo. Colin Hayes explained his influence on this song: "He's a master of comedy and he had a lot of expressions that we grew up listening to and emulating. The verses were very much inspired by a character he had called Barry McKenzie, who was a beer-swilling Australian who traveled to England, a very larger-than-life character."


January 29, 2000 -
The PBS series In the Spotlight presented Steely Dan, showcasing selections from Two Against Nature, their first new studio recording in more than 20 years, on this date.



This is the Home Version of Steely Dan's PBS In The Spotlight Special, with additional documentary footage, (I didn't think anyone would complain.)


January 29, 2018 -
The Marvel film Black Panther directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, and Andy Serkis premiered in Los Angeles on this date.



In response to being asked what it felt like being one of the only few non-black actors on set (and sometimes the only non-black actor on set), Martin Freeman said "You think, 'Right, this is what black actors feel like all the time?'". Freeman and Andy Serkis were known as the "Tolkien white guys" on set, since they also starred together in The Hobbit films.


Another book from the back shelves of The ACME Library


Today in History:
It's Thomas Paine's birthday today. He was born in 1737.



You could commemorate the occasion by reading (or rereading) Common Sense. You could also commemorate the occasion by registering to vote or piercing your perineum or bleaching someone else's rectal area.

I don't care, it was just a suggestion.


January 29, 1845 -
Edgar Allan Poe’s narrative mystery poem The Raven was first published in the Evening Mirror in New York on this date.



Its publication made Poe famous in his day, and today it is still one of the most recognized and respected poems in American literature. However, he only earned about $9 from the work.


January 29, 1886 -
Karl Benz patented the Benz Patent Motorwagon, on this date, which looked much like a tricycle with a cushioned seat; this was the first gas-powered car.

Making a gas-powered car had been a long-time dream of Benz, who had originally started tinkering with engines in his spare time as a bicycle shop owner.


January 29, 1929 -
The Seeing Eye was incorporated in Nashville, Tennessee by Dorothy Harrison Eustus and Morris Frank, on this date. A few weeks later, the first seeing-eye Dog Guide School in the United States opened in Nashville. (The name the Seeing Eye came from Proverbs 20:12 in the Bible, "The seeing eye, the hearing ear; The Lord hath made them both.")



Frank had trained under Jack Humphrey in Switzerland at a kennel owned by Dorothy Eustis. Humphrey's became the Seeing Eye’s first geneticist and served as chief instructor.

Buddy was Frank's first dog and in 1936 became the first seeing-eye dog to ride as a passenger on an American commercial airline.


January 29, 1954 -
Oprah Gail Winfrey, the most influential (and one of the wealthiest) woman in the world, is another year older.



Oprah could easily get weapon grade uranium - don't piss her off.


January 29, 1979 -
Brenda Spencer fired repeatedly at the school across from her residence in San Diego, killing two and wounding eight children, using the rifle her father had given her as a gift.



I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day. -- The reason she gave inspired the Boomtown Rats song.



Remember: guns don't kill people, it's the damn gifts our father's give us.



And so it goes