Always trolling for trivia

Today is National Trivia Day. It is observed across the United States each year on January 4. We observe trivia day, everyday here.

The oldest survivor Of The Crimean War passed away in 2004



Timothy the Tortoise, the last survivor of the Crimean War (which ended in 1856,) died in April of 2004 at the age of about 165. Timothy (a female tortoise despite her name) was discovered aboard a Portuguese privateer (a type of armed ship) in 1854 and went on to “serve” aboard a number of Royal Navy vessels, including HMS Queen during the first bombardment of Sevastopol in the Crimean War. After her naval service, she retired to live out her life on dry land, taken in by the Earl of Devon at his home, Powderham Castle.


Paul Revere Never Actually Shouted, "The British Are Coming!"



Everyone knows the story of Revere's famous ride in which he was said to have warned colonial militia of the approaching enemy by yelling "The British are coming!" This is actually false. According to History.com, the operation was meant to be quiet and stealthy, since British troops were hiding out in the Massachusetts countryside. Also, colonial Americans still considered themselves to be British.


Mary Actually Had a Little Lamb



Everyone knows the nursery rhyme Mary Had A Little Lamb, but you probably didn't know this was based on true story. Her name was Mary Sawyer. She was an 11-year-old girl and lived in Boston and one day was followed to school by her pet lamb. In the late 1860s, she helped raise money for an old church by selling wool from the lamb.


Turkeys Were Once Worshipped Like Gods



While the turkey is currently America's favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal, in 300 B.C., these big birds were heralded by the Mayan people as vessels of the gods and were honored as such, so much so that they were domesticated to have roles in religious rites. They were symbols of power and prestige and can be found everywhere in Maya iconography and archaeology.

So it appears trivia is not so trivial to me.


For those of you interested - Today's gift count (286): you currently have 11 pipers piping,

20 hyperactive effete British gentlemen, knocking furniture over, 27 Pole dancers (draw the shades, the neighborhood kids are staring into your windows), 32 organized dairy workers striking for better working conditions, 35 Swans making a racket, befouling your second bathroom (I hope you have a second bathroom), 36 geese a' laying, 35 golden rings, 32 calling birds, 27 French hens, 20 turtledoves and 11 partridges in their respective pear trees.

Today is also the feast day of St. Simeon the Stylite (he's the hermit who lived on a pillar,) and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, who is considered to be the first American-born saint.



The eleven pipers piping are the first eleven faithful Apostles.



A serious question - why are you still signing for any packages delivered at your home?


January 4, 1941 -

The animated short Elmer's Pet Rabbit was released on this date: it marks the second 'official' appearance of Bugs Bunny and the first to have his name on a title card.



It was directed by the legendary Chuck Jones.



(Note that Bugs hasn't developed his characteristic buck teeth yet.)


January 4, 1957 -
The sitcom based on the comic strip, Blondie, starring Arthur Lake and Pamela Britten premiered on NBC TV on this date.



The popular movie series (28 in all) seemed like a shoe-in for a TV series. Unfortunately, when they made the series about a decade later, it only lasted a single season.


January 4, 1958 –
The TV series, Sea Hunt, starring Lloyd Bridges premiered, in syndication on this date.



When the producer wanted Mike Nelson to wear a gray wetsuit, he had to have one specially ordered. Objecting to the high price, the producer bought a can of spray paint, sprayed it himself, and had two of the crew hold Lloyd Bridges' arms up while the paint dried. When it did, Bridges couldn't put his arms down--the dried paint was too stiff. The producer wound up spending the extra money for a gray wetsuit anyway.


January 4, 1969 -
Jimi Hendrix was banned from the BBC after going off-script when he and his band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, appear on the show Happening for Lulu, hosted by the singer Lulu.



Rather than sing a duet with Lulu, Hendrix and the band launched into an unplanned tribute to the recently disbanded Cream by playing Sunshine of Your Love. The show nearly ran over time and afterwards, the producers had Hendrix banned from ever appearing on the BBC again.


January 4, 1975 –
Elton John cover of the Lennon - McCartney song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds reached the No. #1 spot on the Billboard Charts on this date.



The "Lucy" who inspired this song was Lucy O'Donnell (later Lucy Vodden), who was a classmate of John Lennon's son Julian when he was enrolled at the private Heath House School, in Weybridge, Surrey. It was in a 1975 interview that Lennon said, "Julian came in one day with a picture about a school friend of his named Lucy. He had sketched in some stars in the sky and called it Lucy In The Sky With Diamond ."


January 4, 1984 -
Night Court starring Harry Anderson premiered on NBC-TV on this date.



According to series creator Reinhold Weege, when it is mentioned in the first episode that Harry Stone is a Mel Tormé fan, friends and relatives of the famed jazz and pop singer called Tormé to tell him about the reference. Tormé was so flattered by the reference that when the series later contacted him about appearing on the show, he was more than happy to do so. Tormé has also stated that largely due to the Night Court references, he noticed that his audience at concerts started to get younger and younger and that his newfound resurgence was because of the show.

Don't forget to tune in to The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour today


Today in History:
January 4, 1643 –
...There is no disputin', we're all indebted to Sir Isaac Newton ...



Sir Isaac Newton, English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian was born on this date (or on Christmas day 1642 Old Style.)



And imagine, he still had time to invent Fig Newton Cookies.


January 4, 1863 -
James L. Plimpton changed the skating world forever when he patented the forerunner of the modern roller skate with 4 wheels.



The skate accomplished what previous ones could not: it could maneuver in a smooth curve. Plimpton's skate was far superior to any other that had ever been invented.


January 4, 1885 -
A gravely ill 22-year-old named Mary Gartside was brought to Mercy Hospital in Davenport, Iowa with a sharp pain in her side, Dr. William Grant, decided to try an untested surgery rather than allow the young woman to die.



After giving her anesthesia, he cut into her side and removed the infected appendix. Gartside recovered fully from the surgery and the medical community learned that the appendix was not necessary for living (except for removed organ collectors.)


January 4, 1903 -
(Bunkies, don't watch the following videos, if they're going to bother you.)
Topsy was a domesticated elephant with the Forepaugh Circus at Coney Island's Luna Park. Because she had killed three men in three years (including a severely abusive trainer who attempted to feed her a lit cigarette), Topsy was deemed a threat to people by her owners and killed by electrocution on this date (Inventor Thomas Edison facilitates the entire affair.)



In an attempt to discredit Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla by showing how dangerous Alternating Current electricity was, Thomas Edison filmed the whole proceedings.



He would release it later that year under the title Electrocuting an Elephant (but that is another story.)


Raise your frozen Margaritas and toast dear old Stephen J. Poplawski. Mr. Poplawski was born in Poland on August 14, 1885, which was a fine place to be born if your wanted to be a farmer or fodder for the cannons of the next Austro-Hungarian Geopoliticial machination. He would have none of that and emigrated at age nine with his parents to Racine, Wis (most children were usually beaten soundly when they suggested emigrating in the 1880's.) In 1918 he founded Stephens Tool Co. and in 1919 was hired by Arnold Electric Co. to develop an automatic malted milk mixer for use in restaurants (Racine being home of Horlick Malted Milk.)

On January 4, 1922 he filed a patent "for the first mixer of my design having an agitating element mounted in a base and adapted to be drivingly connected with the agitator in the cup when the cup was placed in a recess in the top of the base."



Well, you don't think they give you a patent for a machine that makes frosty, delicious alcoholic drinks, do you?


January 4, 1943 -
Josef Stalin, evil bastard and abused child, appears as Time's 1942 Man of the Year.

Circulation for the magazine would have increased dramatically, if Stalin hadn't purged millions of Russian citizens.


January 4, 1960 -
So, we just kind of created our own thing and that's part of the beauty of Athens: is that it's so off the map and there's no way you could ever be the East Village or an L.A. scene or a San Francisco scene, that it just became its own thing.



John Michael Stipe, the lead mumbler for R.E.M. was born on this date.


January 4, 1960 -
Albert Camus, French writer, died in an automobile accident at age 46 on this date. In his coat pocket lay an unused train ticket. Camus had intense motorphobia (fear of automobiles), and thus avoided riding in cars as much as possible. Instead, he took trains everywhere, as much as possible.



He had planned to travel by train with his wife and children, but at the last minute accepted his publisher's proposal to travel with him.

If that isn't absurd, I don't know what is.


January 4, 1963 -
NBC is working with a team of astrophysicists to create a new day of the week.



Dave Foley, Actor/Comedian (The Kids In The Hall, News Radio) and Canadian was born on this date.


January 4, 1965 -
Thomas Stearns Eliot, (American-born) English poet, playwright, literary critic and noted Anti-Semitism, died in London, on this date.



I guess he finished measured out his life with coffee spoons?


January 4, 1965 -
During his State of the Union address, President Lyndon B. Johnson outlined his plans for the "Great Society" on this date. President Johnson had introduced his vision of a Great Society in a May 22, 1964 speech: “The great society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time.”



It outlined many social reform programs, including Medicare/Medicaid, the Civil Rights Act, and the National Endowment for the Arts.


January 4, 1970 -
Chauffeur Neil Boland was accidentally killed on this date when The Who's drummer Keith Moon ran over him in his Bentley.



Apparently, Moon's car was under attack from some unruly teenagers, and when Boland jumped out to get them to move, Moon, in a panic, got behind the wheel to drive the car away himself. Unfortunately, the crowd had since pushed Boland under the car and the drummer had never passed his driving test.


January 4, 1972 -
Hewlett-Packard (HP) introduces the HP-35, the first handheld scientific calculator.



The device takes its name from its thirty-five buttons. It’s release marks the beginning of the end of the widespread use of slide rules.


Before you go: Don't forget we're still in the middle of Mulchfest (more about it later.)


And so it goes

Mortality defines the human condition.

Today is Memento Mori Day, a tradition started in ancient Rome that serves as a reminder that we will all die, one day soon.



It is said that in ancient Rome, when a victorious general would return to the city for his triumph (victory parade),

a slave would walk behind him, whispering in his ear: “Remember you are just a man. Remember you will die.”


Today's gift count (220): you currently have 10 Leaping Lords, (the ten lords represent the Ten Commandments,)

18 Rockettes, 24 young milkmaid, 28 Swans making a racket, 30 geese a' laying, 30 golden rings, 28 calling birds, 24 French hens, 18 turtledoves and 10 partridges in their respective pear trees.



The ten lords represent the Ten Commandments.)

Today is also the feast day of St. Genevieve. St. Genevieve is a French saint who lived from circa 419 to 512. At the young age of seven a prophecy was made by St. Germaine that through the example of her life many would be brought to faith. She is credited with saving the city of Paris from being attacked by Atilla the Hun when she implored the inhabitants of France to remain rather than flee and devote themselves to prayer and penance. The approaching army turned towards another city and left Paris untouched.



Do not take the example of St. Genevieve, seriously contemplate fleeing the country (with the gold rings) and living in Canada under an assumed name.


January 3, 1952 -
The ominous, four-note introduction to the brass and tympani theme music, then the staccato voice over intoned, Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to hear is true.



The first regularly scheduled episode of Dragnet premiered on this date (Badge 714 is the name of the syndication version of the series.)


January 3, 1964 -
A month before The Beatles make their iconic live debut in the US on the Ed Sullivan Show, Americans get their first look at the Fab Four when Jack Paar shows a film clip of the band performing She Loves You on his TV show.



In the fall of 1963, TV host Jack Paar was visiting England and witnessed the pandemonium surrounding the mop-headed lads from Liverpool. He wasn't terribly impressed by their performance, bringing back footage mostly for laughs. "I never knew that these boys would change the history of the world's music, which they did," recalls Paar. "I thought it was funny, and I had 'em filmed and brought it to America months before Sullivan."


January 3, 1969 -

Captain Kirk visits an asylum where he is held hostage by an insane starship captain who believes that he is destined to control the universe in the Star Trek series episode Whom Gods Destroy, which aired on NBC TV on this date.



The plot of inmates taking over the asylum and impersonating the warden closely resembles Dagger of the Mind, right down to the "agony chair" prop which is reused from that episode. In his memoir I Am Not Spock, Leonard Nimoy shares a memo that he wrote to the producers to complain about the similarities.


January 3, 1970 –
B. J. Thomas mega hit song, Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head went to the No. #1 spot on the Billboard charts on this date.



Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote this song for the film Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. It was the first million-seller for the legendary songwriters.


January 3, 1970 –
Jon Pertwee made his first appearance as the Third Doctor in the Doctor Who episode Spearhead from Space, on this date. It also marks the first time that the series was broadcast in color.



Because of a BBC strike, this story was shot entirely on location with no studio scenes. This made it the first Doctor Who serial to be made entirely on location and the only serial that was ever made entirely on film. The serial came close to the brink of being canceled after the first week of filming, but producer Derrick Sherwin persuaded the BBC to complete it on location. As a result, this serial was shot in about six weeks between September and November 1969 rather like a low-budget movie. Director Derek Martinus said Sherwin was "a very energetic and determined bloke. He had a tremendous fight to get the go-ahead, but he did and for a while, we all had this wonderful fantasy of doing Doctor Who all on film and selling it to America."


January 3, 1976 -
The Bay City Rollers single, Saturday Night reached the No. 1 position on the US Billboard Charts (their only US No. 1 single,) on this date.



This song was first recorded in 1973 with original Rollers vocalist Nobby Clarke, but this version tanked when it was released in the UK. The band, as well as songwriters Bill Martin and Phil Coulter, had faith in the song and re-recorded it for US versions of their 1975 album Wouldn't You Like It.


January 3, 2000 -
The last daily Peanuts strip ran on this date. The comic strip, which centered around the iconic Charlie Brown, his dog Snoopy, and their friends, had been running since 1950.

Almost 20,000 strips were published in total, not to mention the musicals, movies, and television specials that featured the Peanuts gang.


January 3, 2005 -
Craig Ferguson took over the reins of The Late Late Show for the first time on CBS TV on this date. He would go on to host the program through 2014.



CBS held auditions for the host job by letting their nominees host for one week, which Craig Ferguson obviously won. The others who auditioned were Michael Ian Black, Damien Fahey, and D.L. Hughley.


Another unimportant moment in history


Today in History:
January 3, 1496 -
Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine of his own design on this date. He designed many flying machines, some of which have actually tested successfully in modern times.



In the 2002 BBC television series Leonardo, it was theorized that da Vinci, who was a devout pacifist, purposefully designed the flying machine to fail, so that it could not be put to a military use.


January 3, 1521 -
Pope Leo X still angry about the defacing of Castle Church of Wittenberg, released his papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem and excommunicated Martin Luther for challenging church doctrine on this date.

A little known fact but Luther was an excellent matador and waived his 95 theses in front of the bull


January 3, 1543 -
Spanish (or Portuguese born) explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, best known for his exploration of the coast of California in 1542–1543, died of gangrene and was buried at San Miguel.



He was injured in December while helping defend his men fight off an indigenous tribe in the Channel Islands off California.


January 3, 1868 -
Emperor Meiji ascended the throne and assumed power, re-established the authority of Japan's emperor and heralded the fall of the military rulers known as shoguns.



The feudal clan system was abolished and industrialism was started. Japan opened itself up to the West, thereby obtaining the benefits of western technology.


January 3, 1870 -
... the grandest physical habitat and surroundings of land and water the globe affords ...



The construction of the Brooklyn-side wooden caisson of the Brooklyn Bridge began on this date.


January 3, 1871 –
Henry W. Bradley of Binghamton, New York was issued a patent (U.S. Patent #110,626) for an "improved compound for culinary use" called Oleomargarine on this date.



Faithful readers know that French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès invented a substance he called Oleomargarine in 1867, which he patented in England in 1869.


January 3, 1946 -
The British government afforded William Joyce, (Lord Haw Haw), a late Boxing Day gift; he was hanged in Britain for high treason on this date.



He was the late person hung for treason in England. He had broadcast Nazi propaganda telling the British and American soldiers to surrender with the first words of every broadcast beginning with the words "Germany calling, Germany calling, Germany calling".


January 3, 1953 -
Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, became the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.

I wonder if she kept telling him to sit up straight and stop talking to his neighbor while they were at work?


January 3, 1959 -
A new U.S. flag of 13 stripes and 49 stars waved in the air, on this date.



Alaska, Seward's icebox, became the 49th state in the United States.


January 3, 1962 -
Pope John XXIII excommunicated Fidel Castro on this date.

Pope John had the last laugh over that one.


January 3, 1967 -
Jack Ruby died of natural causes at Parkland Hospital, on this date, where Lee Harvey Oswald had died and President Kennedy had been pronounced dead after his assassination.



He could possibly be one of the only people involved in this sordid affair that did.


January 3, 1969 -
In New Jersey, 30,000 copies of John and Yoko's album Two Virgins are confiscated because the cover is deemed obscene.

There is nothing more shocking than two naked multimillionaires on the cover of your Rock and Roll Album.

Kids, go ask your parents what albums were.


January 3, 1973 -
The Columbia Broadcasting System sold the New York Yankees to a 12-man syndicate headed by George Steinbrenner for $10 million.

As of March 2024, Forbes Magazine valued the team at $7.55 Billion dollars



And so it goes

Be there for one another

(Sorry, a post from the other site accidentially sprang up here earlier)

If you've just sobered up from you party, here's a simple resolution for 2025:



You know you need to hydrate — drink more water.


Today's gift count (156): you currently have Nine ladies dancing,

16 young woman engaged in the dairy industry (and possibly their union rep. I've also never considered whether or not the cows come with them), 21 Swans making a racket, 24 geese a' laying (check to see if you can make omelets for all those people), 25 golden rings, 24 calling birds, 21 French hens, 16 turtledoves and 9 partridges in their respective pear trees.

The nine ladies dancing represent the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22. These fruits are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.) It's also the feast days of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen, both known as defenders and advocates for the Nicene Creed.



With this many people in the house, I suggest that you invest in more toilet paper and a good plunger.


January 2, 1931 -
Rouben Mamoulian adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, starring Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, and Rose Hobart opened in NYC on this date.



The remarkable Jekyll-to-Hyde transition scenes in this film were accomplished by manipulating a series of variously colored filters in front of the camera lens. Fredric March's Hyde makeup was in various colors, and the way his appearance registered on the film depended on which color filter was being shot through. Only in the late 1960's did Mamoulian reveal how this was done.


January 2, 1953 -
NBC-TV premiered The Life of Riley, starring William Bendix on this date.



The Life of Riley started as a radio program starring William Bendix on the Blue Network (ABC) from January 16, 1944 to June 8, 1945 later moving to NBC from September 8, 1945 to June 29, 1951.


January 2, 1955 -
The Bob Cummings' series, The Bob Cummings Show, (AKA Love That Bob in syndication) premiered on NBC TV (later moving to CBS) on this date.



On this show, Robert Cummings plays a womanizing photographer who works with beautiful models. Five years before the show aired, he had starred in a similar role in 1950's The Petty Girl, In which he played a "cheesecake" artist who worked with beautiful models.


January 2, 1971 -
George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, his first album released after the breakup of The Beatles, begins a seven-week run at the top of the US albums chart on this date.



Harrison had Phil Spector produce the album and brought in some outstanding musicians to play on it, including Eric Clapton, Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle and Jim Gordon. Those four formed Derek and the Dominos during the sessions. When they were done with All Things Must Pass, they went to England and started touring and working on their own album, Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs, which was released around the same time as All Things Must Pass.


January 2, 1978 -
The influential science fiction TV series Blake’s 7 premiered on BBC1 in the UK on this date.



Paul Darrow (Kerr Avon), Michael Keating (Vila Restal) and Jacqueline Pearce (Supreme Commander Servalan) are the only actors to have stayed with the series throughout its entire run.


January 2, 2010 –
Kesha's song Tik Tok hit #1 on the Billboard charts on this date.



Kesha sings in this song about brushing her teeth with a bottle of Jack Daniel's. She told The Daily Telegraph that the lyric shouldn't be taken seriously. The singer said shaking her head: "Everyone's really offended by that, but come on, brushing your teeth with Jack Daniel's: what girl does that? People are like, 'Do you really advocate brushing your teeth with bourbon?' I'm like, 'Yes, actually, I do, every day, for everybody. Especially eight-year-olds.' I mean, what are you talking about? Of course I don't. Come on."


Another ACME Safety Film


Today in History:
January 2, 1492 -
(Perhaps drink a Cervezas Alhambra while reading this) After a siege that began in 1491, Abu 'abd-Allah Muhammad XII (also known as Boabdil) surrendered Granada (the last Moorish holdout in Spain) to Ferdinand and Isabella, the king and queen of Castile and Aragon, on this date.

The incredibly elaborate ceremony, culminating with the handing over of the keys to the Alhambra, brought to an end over 700 years Muslim rule in Spain.



Legend has it that as the royal party moved south toward exile, they reached a rocky prominence which gave a last view of the city. Muhammad XII reined in his horse and, surveying for the last time the Alhambra and the green valley that spread below, burst into tears. When his mother approached him she said : "Weep like a woman for what you could not defend as a man". The spot from which Muhammad XII looked for the last time on Granada is known as "the Moor's last sigh" (el último suspiro del Moro.)


January 2, 1872 -
Brigham Young was arrested on charges of bigamy for having 25 wives on this date.

A cursory look through the Brigham Young Archives reveals that it's the first night he was able to sleep with both eyes closed in years.


January 2, 1882 -
The 28 year old Oscar Wilde arrived in New York City on this date to delver a series of lectures across the U.S.A.

When a customs inspector asked him if he had anything to declare he replied, "Nothing but my genius." A cursory look through the Oscar Wilde Collection does not say whether or not he would submit to a full body cavity search by the TSA.


January 2, 1890 -
Alice Sanger was hired as a stenographer for President Benjamin Harrison on this date.

Sanger was the first woman to work a non-domestic service job in the White House, and her appointment was thought to be an olive branch to the growing suffragist movement.


January 2, 1923 -
A Ku Klux Klan surprise attack on a black residential area of Rosewood, Florida, killed 8 people. A white woman fearful of being caught in an affair, falsely claimed that she was raped and beaten by a black man. Violence exploded as a white mob tried to string up a black man for information on an alleged rape



The all-black town of Rosewood, a north Florida community of 120 people, was burned to the ground. At least 6 blacks and 2 whites died and almost every building was burned.


January 2, 1935 -
Bruno Richard Hauptmann went on trial in Flemington, N.J., on charges of kidnapping and murdering the infant son of aviator Charles A. and Anne Lindbergh on this date.



(He would later be found guilty and executed for that crime that he probably did not committed.)


January 2, 1939 -
Time Magazine published its annual Man of the Year issue on this date for the year 1938. Time had chosen Adolf Hitler as the man who "for better or worse" (as Time founder Henry Luce expressed it) had most influenced events of the preceding year.

The cover picture featured Hitler playing "his hymn of hate in a desecrated cathedral while victims dangle on a St. Catherine's wheel and the Nazi hierarchy looks on." This picture was drawn by Baron Rudolph Charles von Ripper, a German Catholic who had fled Hitler's Germany.

Who came in second - Benito Mussolini.


January 2, 1942 -
33 members of a German spy ring headed by Frederick or Fritz Joubert Duquesne were sentenced to serve a total of over 300 years in prison.

The Duquesne Spy Ring, as they were known, is the largest espionage case in United States history that ended in convictions.



The 1945 film The House on 92nd Street was also a thinly disguised version of the Duquesne Spy Ring saga of 1941, but differs from historical fact. It won screenwriter Charles G. Booth an Academy Award for the best original motion picture story.


January 2, 1959 -
The Soviet Union launched the satellite Luna 1 on this date, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon. The plan for Luna 1, (containing two metallic pennants with the Soviet coat of arms to mark its presence there,) had been to conduct in-flight scientific measurements then crash into the moon.



A malfunction in the ground-based control system caused an error in the rocket's burn time and the spacecraft missed the target and flew by the Moon. It was the first man-made object to reach the escape velocity of the Earth.


January 2, 1960 -
U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.



I wonder how that turned out for him.


January 2, 1974 -
President Richard Nixon signed a bill lowering the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 MPH in order to conserve gasoline during an OPEC embargo.

Leadfoots everywhere cried out in pain.



And so it goes

It's been all about lights

All good things come to an end -

My last Hanukkah gift for you this year - remember where you store the menorah


And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been. – Rainer Maria Rilke



Bunkies, it's the 18th year of my rambling and somewhat mildly amusing observations. If you're new to the blog - hopefully you'll find it a tad more interesting than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. If you're a long time reader - hopefully you'll still stick around; as always, I'll keep trying to improve things around the blog this year.

Hopefully you didn't enjoy your New Year's Eve celebration too much (remember to drink plenty of fluids and have a banana.)

I don't want to overtax your brain this morning so, here's some stuff, you may not know -

Today's gift count (120 gifts): you currently have Eight young woman engaged in the dairy industry,

14 Swans making a racket, 18 geese a' laying (fertilized goose eggs are going for about $82 per dozen), 20 golden rings, 20 calling birds, 18 French hens, 14 turtledoves and 8 partridges in their respective pear trees.



The Eight maids a milking symbolize the eight beatitudes (from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount).



Remember to think kindly of women who work in the dairy industry - if it weren't for the unnatural interest Edward Jenner took in milk maids, we would never have the smallpox vaccine.


Today is The Feast of the Circumcision of Christ - a Christian celebration of the circumcision of Jesus, eight days (according to the Semitic and southern European calculation of intervals of days) after his birth,

the occasion went well, and the child was formally given his name, Jesus, a name derived from Hebrew meaning salvation or savior.


Tonight is the Seventh and last night of Kwanzaa.

Tonight celebrates Imani (Faith) - To believe with all of one's heart in one's people, one's parents, one's teachers, one's leaders and the righteousness and victory of one's struggle.


January 1, 1941 -
The first Chinese animated feature film, Princess Iron Fan, directed by Wan Guchan and Wan Laiming was released in China on this date.



It was directed in Shanghai under difficult conditions in the thick of World War II.


January 1, 1954 -
NBC made the first coast-to-coast NTSC color broadcast on this date when it telecast the Tournament of Roses Parade, with public demonstrations given across the United States on prototype color receivers.



The floats, with all colors supplied by flowers, contained humor, music and pretty girls. Parade riders included Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and William Boyd, as his "Hopalong Cassidy" character. The procession winds up at Pasadena's Rose Bowl stadium where the kick-off and part of the football game are also shown.


January 1, 1985 -
VH-1 (Video Hits One) premiered as an adult contemporary music video channel on this date.



The first video that they played was Marvin Gaye's Star Spangled Banner video.


January 1, 1993 -
Chen Kaige masterful adaptation of Lilian Lee's novel, Farewell My Concubine, starring Leslie Cheung, Zhang Fengyi, and Gong Li premieres in Hong Kong on this date.



Jackie Chan was originally offered the role of Duan Xiaolou due to his own childhood experience of training in the Peking Opera. But he turned it down, fearing that the film, which deals with themes of homosexuality, might tarnish his image.


January 1, 1995 -
The final syndicated Far Side cartoon appeared in newspapers 0n this date.

The popular one-panel comic, created by Gary Larson, ran for fourteen years. At the height of its popularity, it was published in 1,900 newspapers daily. Occasionally, Mr. Larson lets a new panel escape from his padded cell.


Before we kiss off another Annus Horribilis, check out the New York Times 2023 Year in Pictures.


And now a brief word from our home office


Today in History:
January 1, 1876 -
The Bass Red Triangle was the first logo to be trademarked in the United Kingdom under the UK's Trade Mark Registration Act 1875, which came into effect on this date.

Legend has it that a Bass employee queued overnight outside the registrar's office on New Year's Eve in order to be the first in line to register a trademark the next morning. The logo became so popular that James Joyce explicitly mentioned it in his novel Ulysses.


January 1, 1892 -
Ellis Island opened as a new immigration depot in the New York City harbor on this date.



17 million immigrants took their first steps towards freedom and opportunity at the Ellis Island processing center. Over 40 percent of the U.S. population — 100 million Americans — can trace their roots back to this doorway.


January 1, 1898 -
New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York.

The four initial boroughs, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx, are joined on January 25 by Staten Island to create the modern city of five boroughs.


January 1, 1901 -
(This is for all our friends in Australia) The Commonwealth of Australia came into being on this date.



Australia had existed as six separate British colonies before, but came into its modern form of government on this day.


January 1, 1915 –
Just in time for New Years Day, Aspirin was made available for the first time in tablet form on this date.



The pills were manufactured by Bayer pharmaceuticals, and had been available in powder form before that.


January 1, 1985 -
Martin Cooper of Motorola publicly demonstrated the world's first handheld mobile phone in April, 1973. He made a call from a New York City street to a landline phone, which was answered by Joel Engel, the head of research at AT&T's Bell Labs.



The first British mobile phone call was made by Michael Harrison to his father Sir Ernest Harrison, chairman of Vodafone, on January 1, 1985. The first mobile phones are roughly the size of a briefcase, have a battery life of about twenty minutes, and cost £2,000.


If you didn't get your Farmer's Almanac this year or suffer from lycanthropy, here is your guide to the Full Moons of 2024:

January 13th -
The Full Wolf Moon. Amid the zero cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. In London, impeccably dressed werewolves are often seen on the prowl in search of a dish of beef chow mein.



It was also known as the Old Moon or the Moon After Yule. In some tribes this was the Full Snow Moon; most applied that name to the next Moon.


February 12th -
The second full moon of 2022 is known as The Full Snow Moon. Usually the heaviest snows fall in this month. Hunting becomes very difficult, and hence internet traffic increases threefold. To the settlers, it was also known as the Lenten Moon.



Some tribes also referred to this Moon as the Full Hunger Moon, since harsh weather conditions in their areas made hunting very difficult.


March 14h -
The Full Worm Moon. In this month the ground softens and the earthworm casts reappear, inviting the return of the robins. Just what you want to think about in the morning - worm crap. It moon known as The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, this is another variation of the Full Worm Moon. it was considered to be the last full Moon of winter.



The more northern tribes knew this Moon as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signaled the end of winter; or the Full Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night.


April 12th -
The Full Pink Moon. The grass pink or wild ground phlox is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names were the Full Pink Floyd Moon because remember - there is no dark side of the moon - it's all dark.



This year, the full moon of the month is also designated as the Paschal Full Moon or the Paschal Term. Traditionally, Easter is observed on the Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon. If the Paschal Moon occurs on a Sunday, Easter is the following Sunday. This was a long winded way of explaining that for Western Christianity, Easter occurs on April 20. (This year, for Eastern Christians, Easter occurs on April 24.) Be thankful that this is not on the test.



Hang tight folks, you'll be OK.


May 12th -
The Full Flower Moon. Flowers are abundant everywhere. Usually at your local Korean deli around the corner.



Other names include the Full Corn Planting Moon, or the Milk Moon (in a few months, the moon will be full of cheese.)


June 11th -
The Full Strawberry Moon. This name was universal to every Algonquin tribe. However, in Europe they called it the Rose Moon. Also because the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries comes each year during the month of June . . . so the full Moon that occurs during that month was christened for the strawberry!



Best seen in Central Park, across from the Dakota.

July 10th -
The Full Buck Moon, when the new antlers of buck deer push out from their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. Again another disgusting image - bone pushing through flesh - for your early morning.



It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, for the reason that thunderstorms are most frequent during this time. Another name for this month's Moon was the Full Hay Moon. (There will also be a Supermoon this month as well.)


August 9th -
The Full Sturgeon Moon, when this large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water like Lake Champlain is most readily caught. Sometimes, a sort of lunar madness occurs during this cycle, when people might chase the full moon with a little chopped egg and sour cream. Please direct these poor souls to Zabar's.



A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because, as the Moon rises, it appears reddish through any sultry haze. It was also called the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon.


September 7th -
The Full Harvest Moon, usually the full Moon occurring nearest to the Autumnal Equinox.



This is the time of year, aging Canadian Rock stars will sing full out with their once achingly beautiful harmonies.


October 6th -
The Full Hunter's Moon. With the leaves falling and the deer fattened, it is time to hunt.



Since the fields have been reaped, hunters can ride over the stubble, and can more easily see the fox, also other animals that have come out to glean and can be caught for a thanksgiving banquet after the harvest.


November 5th -
The Full Beaver Moon (OK stop snickering.) Time to set beaver traps before the swamps freeze to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Beaver Full Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now active in their preparation for winter.



This year, the Frost Moon features yet another total lunar eclipse, which will be at its peak at 5:59 a.m. Eastern on the same morning. It is sometimes also referred to as the Frosty Moon. (Really stop laughing.)


December 4th -
The Full Cold Moon (or the Full Long Nights Moon.) In this month the winter cold fastens its grip, and the nights are at their longest and darkest. Also sometimes called the Moon before Yule.



The term Long Night Moon is a doubly appropriate name because the midwinter night is indeed long, and because the Moon is above the horizon for a long time. The midwinter full Moon has a high trajectory across the sky because it is opposite a low Sun. Rudolph sometimes gets the night off because of the bright light.



And so it goes my friends.