Advice is like castor oil ...

easy enough to give but dreadful uneasy to take.

It's Cheap Advice Day, celebrates low cost counselors everywhere, whether they are a professional in the psychiatric industry or that friend who just can’t help but offer their unsolicited advice.

This holiday originates from an episode of Charles M. Shultz’ Peanuts on September 10, 1992 where resident psychiatrist Lucy van Pelt raised her psychiatric fee from 5 cents to 47 cents.


September 10, 1951 -
Jean Renoir underrated classic film (in spectacular Technicolor), The River, was released in the US on this date.



This film was instrumental in launching the careers of Satyajit Ray - an assistant on the film - and Subrata Mitra, who went on to become Ray's cinematographer.


September 10, 1955 -

Gunsmoke premiered on CBS-TV on this date. The television series ran from September 10, 1955 until September 1, 1975 on CBS for 635 episodes. It had the longest run of any scripted series with continuing characters in American primetime television.



William Conrad was the first choice to play Marshall Matt Dillon on TV, having established the role on radio, but his increasing obesity led to more photogenic actors being considered.

Losing the role embittered Conrad for years, though he later starred in another CBS television series, Cannon (1971-1975). Denver Pyle was also considered for the role, as was nipple rouge manufacturer, Raymond Burr who was ultimately seen as too heavy-set for the part.

Rumors that the role was offered to John Wayne have been largely debunked, although he did apparent in an opening promotional video for the program.

Ah, if only Raymond Burr.


September 10, 1965 –
The first National Geographic Special, the 1963 US expedition to Mount Everest, aired on CBS, on this date.



Narrated by Orson Welles, this classic documentary includes the first motion pictures ever taken from Everest's summit by the first Americans to scale the dangerous west ridge.


September 10, 1966 -
The Beatles' Revolver album goes #1 and stays #1 for six weeks, on this date.



Revolver is the only album on which George Harrison wrote three of the songs. On all the others he only has two or less cuts. On The White Album he had four, but it was a double album so he was only allotted his usual one track per-side.


September 10, 1966 -
The Supremes started a two-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Charts with You Can't Hurry Love, their sixth No. 1 single, on this date.



This was written by the prolific songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland. It was based on a gospel song entitled You Can't Hurry God, which was sung by Dorothy Love Coates and the Gospel Harmonettes, a gospel group based in Birmingham, Alabama.


September 10, 1985 -
The film adaptation of the David Hare play Plenty, directed by Fred Schepisi, and starring Meryl Streep, Charles Dance, Tracey Ullman, John Gielgud, Sting, Ian McKellen, and Sam Neill premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on this date.



Many critics dismissed this movie as being just a filmed version of David Hare's stage play, even though Hare had rewritten about sixty percent of the material for this movie.


September 10, 1988 -
Home Vision Entertainment released the documentary Comic Book Confidential, directed by Ron Mann and featuring the work of Robert Crumb, Will Eisner, William M. Gaines, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and Frank Miller, on this date.



In the introductory credits the artists portrayed in the film are presented by a comic artist who is working on a comic page, filling the frames with the name and a typical comic character of each artist.


September 10, 1990 -
NBC helped Will Smith on the long juggernaut that was his career when they began airing the series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, on this date.



Despite portraying himself as a charismatic, self-confident playboy, Will Smith has said that he was a shy, awkward teen who was very insecure about approaching and dating girls.


September 10, 1993 -
The science fiction television series The X-Files premiered with the episode Pilot on the Fox network on this date



Dana Scully was named after the famous sports journalist Vin Scully. Mulder is the maiden name of Chris Carter's mother.


September 10, 1994 -
The animated parody of a superhero series, The Tick, premieres on FOX TV, on this date.



Townsend Coleman (Tick), Rob Paulsen (Arthur) and Cam Clarke (Die Fledermaus) also voiced three of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Michelangelo was voiced by Coleman, Raphael by Paulsen and Leonardo by Clarke. Before becoming animated shows, both The Tick and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic series were intended as spoofs. The Tick was parodying superhero comics in general, while TMNT focused on The 1980's era of Marvel Comics Daredevil.


Today's moment Zen


Today in History:
On September 10, 1419, supporters of the French Dolphin murdered John the Fearless.

John's brothers, Thomas the Prudent and Henry the Wary, lived on into old age.


September 10, 1623 -
A cargo load of lumber and fur became the first exports in history from North America to England on this date.

This ensured the commercial success of the new world, as Europe had long been paralyzed by a shortage of sticks and hair.


September 10, 1898 -

She was still known as one of the most beautiful women in Europe well into her 60s. Her decades-long hunger diets coupled with a need for movement and exercise which compelled her to undertake lengthy and strenuous hikes, caused malnutrition and depressions and led finally to suicidal fantasies.



The sixty-year old empress was stabbed with a file by a twenty-four year old anarchist, Luigi Lucheni, shortly after noon on September 10, 1898 on the promenade of Lake Geneva as she boarded a steamship for Montreux.



After the incident the Empress still walked for a few minutes. Because she was so strictly corseted, she was unaware how seriously she had been wounded.

Her last words were "What happened to me?"


September 10, 1922 -
Yma Sumac (and not Amy Camus from Brooklyn), noted Peruvian soprano, one of the most famous proponents of exotica music, was born on this date.





She was said to have well over four octave range.


September 10, 1932 -
You must take the A Train to go to Sugar Hill way up in Harlem ...

It's the 92nd Anniversary of the famed NYC transit line (it was the first city owned line; the other two lines at the time were privately owned.)


Believe it or not, Mike the Headless Chicken (April 1945 – March 1947) was a Wyandotte rooster (cockerel) that lived for 18 months after its head had been cut off. Thought by many to be a hoax, the bird was taken by its owner to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City to establish its authenticity.



On Monday, September 10, 1945, farmer Lloyd Olsen of Fruita, Colorado, had his mother-in-law around for supper and was sent out to the yard by his wife to bring back a chicken. Olsen failed to completely decapitate the five-and-a-half month old bird named Mike. The axe missed the jugular vein, leaving one ear and most of the brain stem intact. Lloyd wasn't trusted with the knife on the farm after that.



On the first night after the decapitation Mike slept with his severed head under his wing.


September 10, 1953 -
Brothers Gilbert and Clark Swanson contributed to an American food revolution by selling their first TV dinner, for 98 cents, on this date.



It let customers feast on turkey with corn bread stuffing, buttered peas, and sweet potatoes - right in front of their television screens. Americans eating habits and health would never be the same.


September 10, 1972 -
The USA suffered its first loss of an Olympic basketball game on this date, in a disputed match against the Soviet Union at the Munich, Germany Olympic Games.



The Soviets won the game by a single point, making the winning basket as time expired and igniting vociferous American objections questioning the legitimacy of the final play.


September 10, 1977 -
Convicted torture-killer Hamida Djandoubi, an immigrant from Tunisia, becomes the last person executed by France when he was guillotined in Marseilles on this date.

He did not survive his execution and there are no notes as to whether or not Djandoubi was buried with his head under his arm.



And so it goes.