(Well there is an old joke by George Carlin, but I'm not going to play it to you, you'll have to find it yourself, but I guess that would put me off anchovies.)
November 12, 1964 -
On his 19th birthday, Neil Young wrote Sugar Mountain, where he reflects on his fleeting youth ("You can't be 20 on Sugar Mountain"), the first formal release was a recording of the song made on November 10, 1968.
Joni Mitchell's The Circle Game was inspired by this song. As she explained to a live audience at The Paris Theatre in 1970, "Neil Young wrote this song that was called 'Oh to live on sugar mountain' which was a lament for his lost youth. And I thought, God, you know, if we get to 21 and there's nothing after that, that's a pretty bleak future, so I wrote a song for him, and for myself just to give me some hope. It's called 'The Circle Game.'"
November 12, 1976 -
Featuring a cast of 50 million, the very strange documentary All This And World War II, a collection of WWII newsreel footage, clips from other movies, and covers of Beatles songs, opens in US theaters on this date.
The film's director Susan Winslow was hired as she had been a researcher on the movie Brother Can You Spare a Dime which integrated film footage and 1930s newsreels with gramophone songs of that era. Her original role was as a researcher and to select footage but her contribution became so important she was named the film's director.
November 12, 1982 -
Robert Altman's low budget (and well received) adaptation of Ed Graczyk's play, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, starring, Sandy Dennis, Cher, Karen Black, and Kathy Bates premiered in NYC on this date.
Cher, Karen Black and Sandy Dennis reprised their roles from the stage production that played on Broadway at the Martn Beck Theatre in 1982. Robert Altman also directed this stage season.
November 12, 1992 -
The screamingly funny TV comedy Absolutely Fabulous, written by Jennifer Saunders, starring Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley premiered on the BBC on this date.
The inspiration for casting Joanna Lumley as Patsy came from a sketch on The Full Wax. There, Ruby Wax interviewed Lumley, where the actress (who had previously been seen as a prim and proper English rose) played herself as a drunk, cocaine-addicted, washed-up has-been.
November 12, 1993 -
Jane Campion's Oscar-winning film, The Piano starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel (and his penis), Sam Neill and Anna Paquin, was released in the US on this date.
Holly Hunter received three on-screen credits for the film, playing the character of Ada, playing the piano herself, and being a British sign language interpreter for Anna Paquin.
November 12, 2008 -
Danny Boyle's international hit, Slumdog Millionaire, starring Dev Patel and Freida Pinto went into limited release in the US on this date.
Longiness Fernandes was the choreographer of the dance sequence set to the song Jai Ho, which is played during the end credits. But his name was inadvertently left out in the credits of the film. Upset with this, Longiness skipped the preview parties. Danny Boyle was also upset over this mistake and promised Longiness that he would make it up to him, and did it in style. While accepting the Best Director Oscar, he admitted his mistake before the audience and thanked Longiness.
November 12, 2011 –
The Rihanna (featuring Calvin Harris) single, We Found Love became a No. #1 hit on the Billboard charts, on this date.
The film was originally intended to receive a PG-13 rating. In the end, it received an R rating because of its intense tone. With no time or money for appeals, the film was released with its given rating.
November 12, 2016 -
Kate McKinnon sang Hallelujah in character as Hillary Clinton to open Saturday Night Live the Saturday after the 2016 presidential election.
It's very déjà vu and still incredibly poignant.
Today's moment of Zen
Today in History:
King Cnut of England, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden died on this date in 1035. (Cnut is better known to most Americans as King Canute, which offers fewer typographical hazards.)
Cnut was the son of Svein Forkbeard, son of Harald Bluetooth, son of Gorm (now you know.) In 1013 Cnut's father conquered all of England from the Saxon King Aethelred but died anyway. This allowed Aethelred to take England back, which made it necessary for Cnut himself to reconquer England in 1016. He enjoyed this so much that he went on to conquer Scotland, Denmark, Norway, and part of Sweden, all of which came to be known collectively as Cnutland, perhaps explaining the region's subsequent popularity among European dyslexics.
This will be on the test.
November 12, 1859 -
The first flying-trapeze circus act was performed by Jules Leotard at the Circus Napoleon (later renamed Cirque d'Hiver) in Paris on this date.
His act caused a sensation in Paris, and soon other circus performers were trying out his technique. Leotard designed the garment that bears his name. Jules died at the age of 28 in Spain, leaving behind the famous Leotard and the art of flying trapeze.
November 12, 1912 -
The bodies of Captain Robert Scott and his men were found on the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica, frozen solid in one huge block of ice, on this date.
So he had literally become Scott of the Antarctic.
November 12, 1928 -
S. S. Vestris left New York November 10, 1928, with 129 passengers and 196 crew. The next day she ran into a severe storm and developed a starboard list, caused by a partially open coal port four feet above the water line
An SOS was sent out on November 12, some 200 miles off Hampton Roads, Virginia, and the ship was abandoned and after a few hours, the ship fell on her side and sank. Approximately 112 of the 325 onboard were lost (there was never a conclusive count - you know how it is during a disaster): all 13 children on board perished, as well as 28 of the 36 women.
November 12, 1933 -
Hugh Gray of the British Aluminum Company took five pictures of the Loch Ness Monster, the first known photos. Four the the five exposures were blank, and the remaining photo was later proven to be a hoax.
The brand of whiskey, Mr. Grey consumed has been lost in the ethers of time.
Early on the morning of November 12, 1942, Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, mob informer, then in protective custody, fell to his death from a hotel window. It is not known whether he was thrown or pushed out the window, or if he was trying to escape. The angle of trajectory suggests that he was, in fact, defenestration (my favorite word.)
November 12, 1945 -
As I get older, I get smaller. I see other parts of the world I didn't see before. Other points of view. I see outside myself more.
Happy Birthday Neil Percival Young !!!
It was on this date in 1948 that former Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and seven others were sentenced to hang.
(This was back in the quaint old days, when the world considered it legal not only to have enemies, but to kill them after they tried to kill you.)
November 12, 1955 -
Today was one of the most event-filled dates in Hill Valley, CA history:
During the famous Hill Valley Thunderstorm, a bolt of lightning strikes the Clock Tower at precisely 10:04 p.m., and it hasn't rung since.
November 12, 1980 -
NASA's space probe Voyager 1 reached Saturn on this day and sent photos of the planet's rings back to Earth, nearly a billion miles (about 1.6 billion km) away.
Before you go - I hadn't realized how many different supermarket chains there were in the UK - next up Salisbury has a very charming advert featuring Roald Dahl’s the Big Friendly Giant or BFG -
Remember no humans were consumed during the making of this commercials. The BFG has forsworn eating humans.
And so it goes
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