It seems like New Year's Day keeps happening every week

Happy Chinese New Years Day - The Lunar New Year starts today, and it's the Year of the Snake, but which one?



In Chinese astrology, each year is associated with a Chinese zodiac animal sign and one the Five Elements: Gold (Metal), Water, Wood, Fire, or Earth. Both the sign and element of your birth year are said to affect your personality and destiny. Once again, this year’s elemental sign is wood - so we are celebrating Wood Snake.

(Please be aware I will be celebrating Chinese New Year by recklessly shooting firecrackers in public locations for the next two weeks. Please also remember that people in China don't call it Chinese New Year, it's Lunar New Year; other countries celebrate Lunar New Year as well.)



According to a Chinese legend, Nüwa is the goddess who created the world. She created certain animals on different days, hence each day is considered the birthday of the corresponding animal.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, she created chickens. Legend also has it that in ancient times, Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on the Lunar Chinese New Year. Twelve came, and Buddha named a year after each one. He announced that the people born in each animal's year would have some of that animal's personality.

Occupying the Sixth position in the Chinese Zodiac, The Snake is the intuitive, introspective, refined and collected of the Animal Signs. They are attractive people who take cries with ease and do not become flustered easily. They are graceful people, exciting and dark at the same time.



Snake is not a welcome animal in China. Some Chinese born in year of snake prefer to say they were born in little dragon year. They said a dragon fell down from the sky and then became a snake. Therefore, Snakes have Dragon's body without scale and cannot fly. Dragon is the big brother of Snake. Snake is shame to be on the ground. Snake becomes a calm, shy, cautious and low-key animal. Snake won't attack its opponent, unless it's disturbed. As long as we don't fool with Snake, we won't get bitten. Snake has the ability to swallow an animal bigger than its size. So we cannot underestimate snake's ambitious.

It is also believed that Snakes get along best the Rooster, Ox, Monkey, and Horse, who will have good social relationships and excellent interpersonal connections in 2025. Their lucky colors are gold, blue, greenand brown and their lucky numbers include 2, 8, and 9.



The world’s largest annual human migration is now well underway as billions of trips are made across China, in what is known as Chunyun, when students, migrant workers and office employees living away from home will make the journey back to celebrate with their families.

Hopefully, COVID will not run rampant throughout China again.


My bounty is as
boundless as the sea,
My love as deep.

The more I give to thee,
The more I have,
for both are infinite ....









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.



While shooting aerial footage over Greenland, the second unit camera crew accidentally filmed a secret US military base. Their plane was forced down, and the crew was suspected of being Soviet spies.


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.



The hand claps at the beginning have been sampled many times by a variety of hip-hop and R&B artists.


January 29, 1981 -
Dolly Parton's theme song for the film 9 to 5 went to No. 1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



In a 2009 interview with 60 Minutes, Parton talked about the unlikely inspiration for this song: her fingernails. She had very long, acrylic nails, and discovered that when she rubbed them together she could create a rhythm that sounded like a typewriter, and since the movie was about secretaries, she was able to use that sound to compose the song on the set. She even played her fingernails as part of the percussion sound when she recorded the track.


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 ACME little known animal fact


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, 1856 -
Queen Victoria issues a Warrant under the Royal sign-manual that establishes the Victoria Cross to recognise acts of valour by British military personnel during the Crimean War, on this date.



Since then, the medal has been awarded 1,358 times to 1,355 individual recipients. Only 15 medals, of which 11 to members of the British Army and 4 to members of the Australian Army, have been awarded since the Second World War.


January 29, 1880 -
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it.



William Claude Dukenfield, vaudevillian, film actor and juggler was born on this date.


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