Nearer to vital truth than history

Today is World Poetry Day. It's a time to appreciate and support poets and poetry around the world. It is held on March 21 each year and is an initiative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).



Don't You Wonder, Sometimes? - Emily Dickinson


March 21, 1940 -
Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again ...

Alfred Hitchcock's first American production, the thriller Rebecca, starring Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson, George Sanders and Gladys Cooper premiered in Miami on this date.



Mrs. Danvers is hardly ever seen walking, she seems to glide. Alfred Hitchcock wanted her to be seen solely from Joan Fontaine's character's anxious point of view, and this effect tied in with her fear about Mrs. Danvers appearing anytime unexpectedly.


March 21, 1952 -
The first rock and roll concert was held in America on this date, when DJ Alan Freed (the man who coined the phrase "Rock and Roll") hosted The Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland, Ohio.

The first rock and roll concert was shut down after the first act, when it appeared that a riot might break out.



The reason the concert ended in disaster: a minor printing error. The mistake was caused by someone forgetting to add the date to tickets issued for a follow-up ball, which Leo Mintz, an early rock-n-roll promoter had set about organizing immediately after the initial one sold out. As a result, an estimated 20,000 people showed up on the same night for the first concert - at a venue which could hold half that number.


March 21, 1964 -
The Beatles' single She Loves You, went #1 and stayed #1 for two weeks on this date.



The Beatles released a German version translated as Sie Liebt Dich in the US in 1964. They learned some German when they became the house band in Hamburg in 1962, but needed a German speaker to help them with the lyrics. They recorded the German version in Paris - it was the only time they recorded outside of England.


March 21, 1967 -
George Roy Hill's musical spoof of the Roaring 20's, Thoroughly Modern Millie, starring Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore, James Fox, John Gavin, Carol Channing, and Beatrice Lillie, premiered in NYC, on this date.



The was the final theatrical movie of Beatrice Lillie. She was showing early signs of Alzheimer's disease, and had trouble memorizing her lines. During filming, Julie Andrews stood off-camera and repeated Lillie's lines to her, so Lillie could complete her scenes.


March 21, 1970 -
Simon & Garfunkel release the single The Boxer, from their fifth and final studio album, Bridge over Troubled Water, on this date.



This song took over 100 hours to record, with parts of it done at Columbia Records studios in both Nashville and New York City. The chorus vocals were recorded in a church: St. Paul's Chapel at Columbia University in New York. The church had a tiled dome that provided great acoustics. It was an interesting field trip for the recording crew who had to set up the equipment in the house of worship.


March 21, 1980 -
Pink Floyd’s powerful protest song Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2 reached the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it remained for 11 consecutive weeks. This track was part of their iconic rock opera album The Wall, which was released in 1979.



Called (Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2), it became their only No.1 single in the U.S. and U.K., and many other countries—and it sold over four million copies worldwide.


March 21, 1980 –
On the season finale of Dallas, the infamous character J.R. Ewing was shot by an unknown individual - Who Shot JR?



Viewers had to wait all summer, and most of the autumn because of a Hollywood actors' strike (and Hagman's own holdout), to learn whether J.R. would survive, and which of his many enemies was responsible.


March 21, 1983 -
Pink Floyd released The Final Cut, their twelfth studio album and the last to feature founding member Roger Waters. Subtitled A Requiem for the Post War Dream, the album stands as one of the band’s most politically charged and emotionally intense works.



When Pink Floyd began work on The Final Cut, Waters took the reins entirely. He wrote all the songs, handled nearly all the lead vocals, and guided the album's creative direction. Guitarist David Gilmour, drummer Nick Mason, and keyboardist Richard Wright (who had been fired during The Wall sessions) played minimal roles in the recording process. Gilmour contributed guitar solos, but the album was essentially a Roger Waters solo project released under the Pink Floyd name.


March 21, 1995 -
We all get to spend Dave Nelson's first day at WNYX when NewsRadio, starring Dave Foley, Phil Hartman, Maura Tierney and Andy Dick premiered on NBC-TV, on this date.



Jon Lovitz appeared as three different characters in the series: 1. A guest appearance as a mental patient who befriends Bill McNeal, 2. A guest appearance as a suicidal man perched on the ledge outside Dave's window, 3. As Max Lewis, a radio DJ who had several dozen jobs in his past, but who was hired to replace the late Bill McNeal, largely because he had once worked alongside him. Lovitz said that he took the role to honor the memory of his good friend, the late Phil Hartman.


March 21, 1990 -
The short-lived CBS sitcom, Sydney, starring Valerie Bertinelli and a pre-Friends Matthew Perry, premiered on this date.



The theme song for Sydney was Finish What Ya Started By Van Halen from their album OU812. Valerie was married to the guitarist Eddie Van Halen at the time.

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


Today in History:
March 21, 1556 -
Former Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer (who led the effort to help Henry VIII marry Anne Boleyn,) scheduled to denounce his errors and be burned at the stake (after Queen Mary, Henry's daughter, attained the throne), denounced his own confessions and was hustled off to be burned.



He then put forth his hand and declared: “For as much as my hand offended, writing contrary to my heart, my hand shall first be punished.”

Oh that wacky English Reformation.


March 21, 1843 -
According to confused Biblical scholar William Miller, Christ would return sometime in the year following this day in 1843. After Jesus failed to appear by the next March, Miller claimed it was the result of an arithmetic error and recalculated the deadline to be October 22, 1844.

The Lord had other plans on that date as well.


March 21, 1943 -
Cornelia Fort was flying with a student pilot on the morning of December 7, 1941, when they nearly collided with a Japanese aircraft leaving the scene at Pearl Harbor. Thus she became one of the few airborne eyewitnesses to the attack.



She was the second woman to volunteer for the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (the WAFS, which later merged into the WASPs, or Women Airforce Service Pilots), whose members logged millions of miles ferrying aircraft to points of embarkation and towing targets for training exercises. On a routine ferrying flight in 1943, Fort died at the controls of an aircraft when another plane struck hers. She was the first woman pilot to die in the line of duty for the U.S. military.


In honor of the start of spring, let us seriously consider spring cleaning - and the unfortunate fate of the Collyer brothers.

Homer and Langley Collyer were well-to-do New Yorkers who grew up in a fashionable Harlem brownstone with their parents just before the turn of the 20th century. Despite both being college graduates, the brothers became increasingly eccentric over the years, eventually turning into reclusive hermits. They quite literally walled themselves inside their filthy brownstone, filling it with junk that Langley had collected from the streets. Meanwhile, Homer, who had gone blind and was crippled by severe rheumatism, remained confined inside.



On March 21, 1947, police received a tip that there was a dead body in the Collyer home. After several hours of crawling through ceiling-high, booby-trapped corridors made of newspapers and debris, police found Homer - dead, apparently only a few hours earlier. But where was Langley?



Eighteen days and nearly 100 tons of trash later, police found Langley’s decomposing, rat-gnawed corpse. He had been crushed in one of his own booby-trapped passageways. Medical examiners concluded that Langley had died about a week before his brother. Homer, blind, crippled, and without assistance, succumbed several days later to malnutrition, dehydration, and cardiac arrest. Not exactly a happy ending.



So, kids: clean your room, get outside, and play with your friends. Oh - and don’t forget to wash your hands.


March 21, 1962 -
A two-year old female black bear, named Yogi, was taken aboard a B-58 bomber out of Edwards Air Force Base in California, flown up to 35,000 feet at a supersonic speed of 850 miles per hour, and ejected from the bomber in a specially made capsule. She landed safely, and became the first living creature to survive a parachute jump from a plane flying faster than sound.



Imagine what PETA would have made of this test at the time.


March 21, 1963 -
Alcatraz Prison was closed at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy on this date. (The same year, the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois opened as the replacement facility for Alcatraz.)



Hardened criminals would have to go elsewhere to experience the joys of prison sex by the sea.


March 21, 1965 -
NASA launches the Ranger 9 Lunar Lander on this date, the last in a series of unmanned lunar probes, on a mission to photograph the surface of the Moon.



It would return 5,814 pictures before impacting the surface of the lunar surface.


March 21, 1970 -
On this date, Vinko Bogataj crashes during a ski-jumping championship in Germany;



his image becomes that of the "agony of defeat" guy in the opening credits of ABC's Wide World of Sports.


March 21, 1976 -
David Bowie and Iggy Pop were arrested on suspicion of marijuana possession in New York. They were released on $2,000 bail. The charges were later dropped on 4/20/76.

Musicians using drugs - shocking, shocking, I tell you.


March 21, 1980 -
Mobster Angelo The Docile Don Bruno was killed with a shotgun blast to the head while he waits in his car after dinner. The order was probably ordered Anthony Tony Bananas Caponigro, Bruno's consigliere, so much for family loyalty. His replacement, one of Bruno's former capo Phil Chicken Man Testa, is short lived, as he is killed a year later by a nail bomb at his home.

One must assume that their parents knew something about their future careers when giving them middle names.


Today's episode of Oh, that Wacky Russian Revolution:

The Russian royal family was having a really bad day - in a month that was particularly bad. On March 21, 1917, Nicholas II and his family were officially placed under arrest. It was a confused and confusing period, and the situation would only continue to deteriorate until the October Revolution (which actually took place in November).

The eventual triumph of the proletariat, as everyone knows, finally put an end to all the suffering and oppression in Russia. (Or so they claimed.)

Since yesterday was Fred Rogers’ birthday, I believe an important comparison should be made to help you better understand the Russian imperial dynasty::

Hereditary heads of the Romanov Russian empire, 1613-1917: 19
Hosts of the long-running PBS series Mr Rogers’ Neighborhood: 1
Russian heads of state to have died by natural causes: 10
On-screen deaths on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood: 0
Average length of Russian reign, in years: 15.6
Years Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood ran: 31
Russian emperors to die of dropsy: 1
Dropsy deaths in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe: 0
Russian emperors assassinated: 5
Assassination attempts on the life of King Friday XIII: 0
Violent Bolshevik Revolutions in the Neighborhood of Make Believe: 0

Please be prepared for a pop quiz tomorrow.



And so it goes.

The earth laughs in flowers

Bunkies, believe it or not.

Winter appears to be officially over.



While you are attempting to balance those eggs and brooms today, remember that the Vernal Equinox occurred at 10:46 AM (EDT) this morning.



That means it’s spring. This year, please don't take off your clothes. Cautiously venture outside, come back in and have a nice cuppa.



And avoid opening up a 1,000 year old book while you're on a picnic (if you know what's good for you.)



Also, this is the last time this year that you can call in sick because of your New Year's Eve celebration from the night before; Happy Nowruz or Persian New Year as it is sometimes known as - I'm sure many Iranian Americans are marking this holiday with a mix of sadness and joy.


The United Nations now recognizes that 'progress' could be measured in the increase in human happiness and well being, not just growing the economy. March 20 has been established as the annual International Day of Happiness and all 193 United Nations member states have adopted a resolution calling for happiness to be given greater priority.





This campaign is a global celebration to mark the United Nations International Day of Happiness. It is coordinated by Action for Happiness, a non-profit movement of people from 160 countries, supported by a partnership of like-minded organizations.

So, given all of the tumult in the world, we land surprisingly 23rd on the happiness scale. Given what's happening this year and I don't think we'll break the top 40 next year.


March 20, 1971 –
Janis Joplin's hit Me and Bobby McGee reached no. #1 on the Billboard Charts on this date. It was her only solo number one single, released on the posthumous album Pearl.



The song was written by Kris Kristofferson, who has written hundreds of songs for a wide variety of artists. Kristofferson would become a successful solo artist and appear in several movies, but it was Janis Joplin's hit cover of this song that brought his career to the next level.


March 20, 1973 -
The TV movie pilot for the series The Police Story, Slow Boy, starring Vic Morrow, Edward Asner, Diane Baker, Chuck Connors, and Harry Guardino premiered on NBC TV on this date.



In the opening stakeout scene, the squad is watching Slow Boy (Chuck Connors) outside a theater showing the movie The New Centurions, which is the movie based on the novel by Joseph Wambaugh.


March 20, 1982 -
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts' single I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll begins a seven week run at #1 on this date.



Jett was touring England as a member of an all teenage girl group called The Runaways when she discovered this song, originally recorded by a British group called The Arrows in 1975. She wanted to record it with The Runaways, but the other members didn't like the song and made the mistake of passing it up. So, in 1979, Jett recorded it with Paul Cook and Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols and released it as a B-side. Finally, in 1981, Jett recorded the song with her band The Blackhearts, resulting in a monster hit.


March 20, 1985 -
For some unknown reason, CBS TV decided revive Betty Boop in a TV special, The Romance Of Betty Boop, which aired on this date. (Koko the Clown, Bimbo, Grampy, Pudgy nor any other recurring characters from the original Fleischer cartoons appeared in this TV special.)



According to the director Bill Melendez, the short was supposed to be a pilot for an animated series.


March 20, 1987 –
Robert Townsend's seminal satirical comedy Hollywood Shuffle, starring Robert Townsend and a whole bunch of the Wayan family premiered on this date.



At the end of the film, Robert Townsend plays a flying black superhero. Six years later, he would star in The Meteor Man, about a flying black superhero.


March 20, 1990 -
Chrysalis Records released Sinead O'Connor's second album, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, on this date. The single Nothing Compares 2 U, off the album (written by Prince,) propelled her to stardom.



The title is a good representation of Sinéad's ethos; the album made her very famous thanks to the hit Nothing Compares 2 U, but she found that fame stifling and pushed back against it. All she really wanted was the autonomy to make music on her terms and the financial security to raise her family (she had her first child in 1987).


March 20, 1992 -
Crossing one's legs would never be the same - Basic Instinct starring Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone, premiered on this date.



Sharon Stone's infamous leg-uncrossing scene was not in Joe Eszterhas' original script. It was thought up by Paul Verhoeven while the movie was being shot. It was based on a memory of Verhoeven's college years, when a woman at a party had done the exact same thing to embarrass him.


Another unimportant moment in history.


Today in History:
March 20, 1345 –
According to some very drunk french scholars at the University of Paris, the Black Death was created on this date, from what they called “a triple conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in the 40th degree of Aquarius", occurring on this date.

Actually, the bubonic plague came from infected fleas from sickened and dead rats and at its peak, the disease wiped out over a third of Europe. (This will be on the test.)


March 20, 1413 -
During his lifetime it had been predicted that King Henry IV would die in Jerusalem. The king himself took this to mean that he would die on Crusade. Rather wisely he kept away from entering the holy city – wouldn’t you?

As it happened on this date, Henry visited the Abbot of Westminster's house and has a massive coronary as he entered the Jerusalem Chamber in Westminster Abbey.


On March 20, 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte entered Paris and began his "Hundred Days" rule (from March 20 to July 8, 1815 ), which lasted 111 days. Days were measures in the metric system back then.



Napoleon was accompanied by a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000, Napoleon again became ruler of France. The period of Napoleon's last period of power in France, from March 20 to July 8, 1815 is often called the Hundred Days. It is in fact 111 days.


March 20, 1828 –
Let’s raise a toast of aquavit to the playwright Henrik Ibsen, born in Skien on this date. He was, at one point, a small-time cherry herring bootlegger and an assistant stage manager for a new theater, where it was his job to produce a new drama each year based on Norway’s glorious past. He produced a number of plays, but none received much attention (owing largely to the fact that, while it was true that Norway did have a past, most of it was quite boring - none of it particularly glorious).

Overworked, underpaid, and very cold, he applied to the government for a stipend to study the fjords. The government decided instead to give him one to travel abroad, and off he went. He spent the next 27 years living in Italy and Germany, pining for those fjords.



He found that by leaving his homeland, he could finally thaw out and see Norway clearly, and he began to work on creating a truly Norwegian drama. At a time when most people were writing plays full of sword fights and murders, Ibsen began writing about relationships between ordinary people - the kind of people with terrible social diseases, suicidal tendencies, murderous intentions, incestuous thoughts, and the occasional old lech - the ordinary people of Norway.

He used dialogue rather than monologues to reveal his characters’ emotions, and he abandoned verse. As he put it: “We are no longer living in the age of William Shakespeare... What I desire to depict are human beings, and therefore I will not let them speak the language of the gods.” (Though, of course, he said it in Norwegian.)



One of Ibsen’s first major plays was A Doll's House (1879), about a woman named Nora who refuses to obey her husband and ultimately leaves him - famously slamming the door as she exits in the final scene. When it was first produced, European audiences were shocked, and it sparked debates about women’s rights, divorce, and domestic life across the continent. It also helped transform acting. At the time, actors were often praised for delivering long poetic speeches and avoiding collisions with the furniture, but Ibsen emphasized small gestures, vocal inflection, and meaningful pauses, inspiring a new generation of performers to truly embody their characters.



A Doll’s House made Ibsen a celebrity across Europe. His play Ghosts followed two years later. Its frank depiction of hereditary disease and moral hypocrisy further scandalized theater going audiences.

Henrik Ibsen once said, “You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.” (He may also have suggested avoiding them while mucking out the theater toilets—have you seen what actors eat?)

There is only one known picture in which Ibsen smiles. And yes, he was passing gas at the time.


March 20, 1899 -
Martha M. Place, the first woman to be honored with a warm seat in the electric chair, for the bloody murder of her 17 year old stepdaughter Ida, died at Sing-Sing Prison on this date.

Having never executed a woman in the electric chair, those responsible for carrying out the death warrant devised a new way to place the electrodes upon her. They decided to slit her dress and place the electrode on her ankle. Edwin Davis was the executioner. According to the reports of witnesses, she died instantly (having a large amount of electric course through your body normally results in ones death).

The governor of the State of New York Theodore Roosevelt was asked to pardon Place, but he refused. "Bully!"

Martha Place was buried in the family cemetery plot in East Millstone, New Jersey without religious observances.


March 20, 1900 -
Nikola Tesla received a patent (US 645576 A) for the wireless transmission of electric power on this date.

Early radio antennas and telegraphy used the invention, but variations of the coil can also do things that are just plain cool - like shoot lightning bolts, send electric currents through the body and create electron winds.


March 20, 1917 -
Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?



Dame Vera Lynn, actress and singer, who was enormously popular during World War II, was born on this date. A few years ago, she broke her own record as the oldest living artist to release an album on the British charts, at the age of 100.


March 20, 1928 -
Remarkably, Fred Rogers was born today in Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood,





and not some other place.


March 20, 1969 -
Small town musician (John Lennon) married unknown conceptual artist (Yoko Ono) on this date.



I wonder what ever happened to them.


March 20, 1985 -
Libby Riddles made history on this date when she became the first woman to win the grueling 1,049-mile Iditarod Sled Dog Race, after a daring move across Norton Sound in a deadly blizzard.



She was named 1985 Sports Woman of the Year by the Women’s Sports Foundation and honored by the Iditarod veterinarians with the 1985 Leonhard Seppala Humanitarian Award for her humane treatment of her dogs. In addition, her two lead dogs, Dugan and Sister, won the 1985 Golden Harness Award that year.


March 20, 1995 -
The last words of Thomas J. Grasso, executed in Oklahoma by lethal injection on this date: "I did not get my Spaghetti-O's, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this."

Duly noted Mr. Grasso.


March 20, 1995 –
The Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) cult released Sarin gas into the Tokyo subway system, killing a dozen people and sickening thousands.



The attack was the worst in modern Japanese history, and prompted global concern about terrorist groups obtaining chemical weapons.



And so it goes.

Fide et Labore

It's the Feast of St. Joseph, stepdad to Jesus and patron saint of real estate closers (that's why the pastries are for him - he's a closer.)

Remember to go out and have the very delicious Sicilian pastry that bears his name (but get the ones with canolli filling, not the custard.) It's so good, it brings you that much closer to God.

Also, if you live in Capistrano,



Remember the swallows are coming back today, eat you pastries indoors.


March 19, 1947 -
Another Bob Hope film (at the peak of his career), My Favorite Brunette, opened in Los Angeles on this date.



Bing Crosby, Bob Hope's long-term co-star and rival in the Road movies, plays an executioner who is livid when he doesn't get to execute Hope's character. Hope fires back saying, "He'll do any kind of role" (at the time, Crosby was a top star - but here he was doing a one-scene cameo.)


March 19, 1958 -
The film based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical, South Pacific, was released on this date. (Please feel free to sing along with Rossano Brazzi)



This is the only theatrical film adaptation of a Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II stage show to have all the songs intact, with the addition of the song My Girl Back Home, which was cut from the play before it opened.


March 19, 1962 -
Bob Dylan's self-titled debut album went on sale in the US on this date. Initially, poor sales led the record to be known around Columbia Records as "Hammond's Folly" (John Hammond was producer of Dylan's early recordings and the man responsible for signing Dylan to the label).



The album was praised by Village Voice as an "explosive country blues debut," but it featured only two Dylan original compositions, Talkin' New York and Song To Woody, the rest being old folk standards.


March 19, 1962 -
Luis Buñuel's sacrilegious masterpiece, Viridiana, opened in the US on this date.

(Don't forget to turn on the English subtitles.)

After years of living in Mexico, Luis Buñuel was persuaded to make his first film in his native Spain, since 1936 by the vanguard of contemporary young Spanish film-makers who admired his work.


March 19, 1975 -
Columbia Pictures releases Ken Russell's unique version of Tommy, starring The Who, Ann-Margret, Oliver Reed, Eric Clapton, Tina Turner, Elton John, and Jack Nicholson, premiered on this date.



According to Pete Townshend, Oliver Reed had incredible problems recording his part of the soundtrack owing to his inability to sing, and he was able to complete it only because his singing parts were recorded in small bits. Because of this frustrating experience, Townshend was extremely suspicious towards Jack Nicholson when he was chosen to the role of the doctor. Townshend, however, finally agreed when he heard Nicholson singing effortlessly.


March 19, 1976 -
The Doobie Brothers released Takin' It To The Streets, their first album with Michael McDonald, on this date



Michael McDonald got the idea for the title track while driving to a Doobie Brothers concert in California, where he'd be playing with the band. The intro music came into his head, so when he got to the gig he quickly set up his piano and started working on the song. He chipped away at it until they had to start the concert, then kept working on it that night after the show. The lyrics he wrote later.


March 19, 1977 -
It was the end of the road at WJM-TV when the final episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Last Show, aired on CBS TV on this date.



In an interview years later Mary Tyler Moore said that the scene where they embraced and then huddled to the tissues was not in the script, because of the emotion of the final episode the embrace was real and so were the tears. Moore also said when she did the famous 'light off before leaving' scene, they could only do it once as studio lights took forever to come back on.


March 19, 1984 -
CBS TV premiered the midseason replacement show Kate & Allie starring Susan Saint James and Jane Curtin on this date.



Jane Curtin and Susan Saint James previously starred together in the movie How To Beat The High Cost Of Living.


Another little know Monopoly cards


Today in History:
March 19, 1931 -
Though unregulated gambling had taken place in mining towns all over Nevada, gambling was outlawed in the early 20th century as part of a nationwide campaign against corruption.



The state re-legalized it on this day in 1931, and became the state's primary source of revenue.


March 19, 1943 -
Francesco Raffaele Nitto, better known as, Frank 'The Enforcer' Nitti, one of the top henchmen of Alphonse "Big Al" "Scarface" Capone and later the front man for the mob Capone created, the Chicago Outfit, was having a very bad day. Many top members of the Chicago Outfit were indicted for extortion. The Outfit was accused of trying to strong arm some of the largest Hollywood movie studios. The studios had cooperated with The Outfit to avoid union trouble stirred up by the mob.

The day before his scheduled grand jury appearance, Nitti shared breakfast with his wife in their Riverside, Illinois home at 712 Selborne Road. As his wife was leaving for church, Nitti told her he planned to take a walk. After his wife left, Nitti began to drink heavily. He then loaded a .32 caliber revolver, put it in his coat pocket, and walked five blocks to a local railroad yard. Two railroad workers (William F. Sebauer and Lowell M. Barnett) spotted Nitti walking on the track of an oncoming train and shouted a warning. They thought the train hit him, but Nitti had managed to jump out of the way in time. Then two shots rang out.

The trainmen first thought Nitti was shooting at them, but then realized he was trying to shoot himself in the head. The two bullets went through his hat. Nitti finally sat on the ground against a fence and, with the railroad workers watching from a distance, shot himself in the head on this date.


March 19, 1941 -
The Tuskegee Airmen, an elite African-American Army unit —the first to welcome black pilots - was activated on this date.



After two years of training, the Tuskegee Airmen “Red-Tail Angels” were sent to Europe and proved themselves as accomplished battle pilots.


March 19, 1945 -
The Third Reich's World Tour was drawing to an abrupt close. And the band members were understandably depressed. The ever wacky and truly evil bastard Adolf Hitler issued his so-called "Nero Decree" on this date, ordering the destruction of German facilities that could fall into Allied hands.



Albert Speer, gave himself a birthday present today (avoiding the noose at the Nuremberg trials) and does everything he can to stop this from happening, in direct defiance of Hitler. Speer knew he had some precedent, Hitler also had decreed that Paris should be left a smoking ruin the previous summer, but Dietrich von Choltitz thought better of his Fuhrer's order.


March 19, 1953 -
NBC TV aired The Academy Awards on television for the first time on this date. Though the winners had been announced several months earlier, the program still garnered a lot of attention.



The show was hosted by Bob Hope and Conrad Nagel.


March 19, 1957 -
Elvis Presley was touring and has a vision. Before he immediately act upon it, St. Elvis wolfed down seven fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches and agreed to purchase the 14 acre Graceland estate from Ruth Moore for $100,000 on this date.



The place is now his final resting place. Or is it?


March 19, 1982 -
The guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne, Randy Rhoads, died during the Diary of a Madman tour after the plane he is flying in buzzed the band's tour bus and clipped the wing of the plane, crashing into a nearby farmhouse.



Kids, once again, repeat after me, Drugs are bad.


March 19, 1987 -
Televangelist Jim Bakker resigns his PTL ministry after it is revealed he was delivering a little too much spiritual healing to former church secretary and future Playboy playmate Jessica Hahn.



Some $265,000 in ministry funds had been used to keep Hahn quiet about a one-time sexual encounter in 1980. (Given that some unnamed executive paid $130,000 to kept his 'supposed' nine month affair a secret; that was one very expensive tryst.)


March 19, 2003 -
President George W. Bush announced on this date, the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, a military mission to rid Iraq of Saddam Hussein. The American led coalition began with the launch of U.S. cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs aimed at Saddam Hussein near Baghdad.



The war was internationally unpopular from the start, and lost a lot of popularity in America after Bush's claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction were found to be unsubstantiated.


March 19, 2005 -
John Zachary DeLorean former American engineer and executive in the U.S. automobile industry, and drug dealer died on this date.



He quit GM in 1973 to launch the DeLorean Motor Car Co. in Northern Ireland. Eight years later, the DeLorean DMC-12 hit the streets.

8,900 cars were built.


Before you go - Spring starts tomorrow in Northern Hemisphere at 10:26 A.M. EDT,



Partially cloudy, forecast highs in the mid 50s. We'll discuss it all tomorrow.



And so it goes.

I am a picky eater...

I love to pick the raisins out of oatmeal raisin cookies.

Today is Oatmeal Cookie Day. (Remember, oatmeal cookies: the unsung hero of the cookie jar!)



Given the amount of drinking many of you probably did yesterday, a little extra fiber in your diet today wouldn't be the worst idea in the world. Word to the wise - if one of the raisins starts to crawl away, don't eat the cookie.


March 18, 1924 -
The Douglas Fairbanks swashbuckler adventure film, The Thief of Bagdad, which tells the story of a thief who falls in love with the daughter of the Caliph, was released on this date.



For the scenes in the underwater mermaid kingdom, Douglas Fairbanks had the cameras shoot through a curtain of thin gauze, to give the illusion that the Thief was swimming underwater. The mermaid kingdom scenes were then tinted blue in post-production.


March 18, 1938 -
The under appreciated Ernst Lubitsch film, Bluebeard's Eighth Wife starring Gary Cooper and Claudette Coulbert (written by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder) premiered on this date.



At their first production meeting, Ernst Lubitsch posed this question: How do the boy and girl get together? Billy Wilder promptly suggested that the opening scene should be in the men's shop of a department store. "The boy is trying to buy a pajama," he extemporized glibly, "but he sleeps only in the tops. He is thrifty so he insists on buying ONLY the tops. The clerk says he must buy the pants too. It looks like a catastrophe. Then the girl comes into the shop and buys the pants because she sleeps only in the pants." Ernst Lubitsch and Charles Brackett were enchanted with this idea. Months later, they discovered that Billy Wilder himself was a pajama tops-only sleeper and had been contemplating this idea for months, waiting for a chance to use it in a comedy.


March 17, 1945 -
The Merrie Melodies short, The Unruly Hare, directed by Frank Tashlin, and starring Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, was released on this date.



Bugs performs all three of what would become his signature moves here. He breaks the fourth wall several times, kisses his adversary, and appears in drag (though only partially here, when he wears lipstick).



March 18, 1959 -
One of the last classic westerns, Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo, starring John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, and Ward Bond premiered on this date.



Howard Hawks always wanted someone who would connect with teenagers to play Colorado. Reportedly, his first choice was Elvis Presley, who was enthusiastic about the opportunity. Unfortunately, Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, wanted too much money and top billing. Neither Hawks nor John Wayne would have any of it, so the search continued. Hawks settled on Ricky Nelson, although he considered him to be both too young and too lightweight, and deliberately gave him the fewest possible number of lines for a third-billed star. However, he later admitted that having Nelson's name on the poster had probably added $2 million to the film's box office performance.


March 18, 1964 -
The cult horror film, The Flesh Eaters, directed by Jack Curtis, and starring Martin Kosleck, Rita Morely, and Byron Sanders, made its theatrical debut on this date.



The producers used a very William Castle-like exploitation gimmick; plastic packets of "instant blood" were given out to each patron as they entered the theater in case they were attacked by flesh eaters.


March 18, 1964 -
In his first outing as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau, Peter Sellers starred in The Pink Panther, which premiered in New York City on this date.



With just two weeks to go before shooting begun, the producers decided that Ava Gardner's erratic lifestyle could affect filming and decided not to offer her the part of Madame Clouseau. Capucine was hired in a hurry, but Peter Ustinov's wife felt this would affect the calibre of the production and told him to withdraw . From this chaos, Peter Sellers became an international superstar.


March 18, 1967 -
The Beatles' single Penny Lane became their 13th hit to go to the #1 spot on the Billboard Charts, on this date.



The first time The Beatles appeared with facial hair was in the promotional film for this song. The clip shows the band on horseback, trotting around Angel Lane in London (not Penny Lane). By this time, the group had stopped touring, so the only way many fans could see them perform was on music videos like this one.


March 18, 1968 -
Mel Brook's screamingly funny first film, a send-up of Broadway, The Producers, opened in New York City on this date.



Roger Ebert recounted how he was in an elevator with Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft in New York City after the film premiered. A woman got onto the elevator, recognized him and said, "I have to tell you, Mr. Brooks, that your movie is vulgar." Brooks replied, "Lady", he said, "it rose below vulgarity."


March 18, 1972 -
Neil Young's Heart Of Gold, with backing vocals by James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, hit No. #1 on the Billboard Charts in the US, on this date.



Neil Young was in Nashville to record a performance for The Johnny Cash Show along with Tony Joe White, James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt. Elliot Mazer, a producer who owned nearby Quadrafonic Studios, set up a dinner party on February 5, inviting the show's guests and about 50 other people. Mazer was friends with Young's manager Elliot Roberts, who introduced the two at the gathering. Young and Mazer quickly hit it off when Neil learned that Elliot has produced a band called Area Code 615. Young asked if he could set up a session the next day, and Mazer complied.


March 18, 1975 –
McLean Stevenson’s character (Lt. Colonel Henry Blake) died in the M*A*S*H episode Abyssinia, Henry, its third season finale on this date.



According to producer Larry Gelbart, when Larry Linville read the (previously concealed) final page of the script, he said, "Fucking brilliant!" When Gary Burghoff read it, he looked at McLean Stevenson and said, "You'll probably win the Emmy for this, you son of a bitch!"


March 18, 1976 -
Nicholas Roeg's adaptation of the Walter Tevis' novel, The Man Who Fell To Earth, starring David Bowie (in his first major role), Candy Clark, Buck Henry, and Rip Torn, premieres in London, on this date. (And yes Bunkies, this was not a porno film even though it had actors with names like Candy, Buck, and Rip.)



According to costume designer May Routh, David Bowie was so thin that some of his outfits were boys' clothes.


March 18, 1981 -
Stephen J. Cannell's take on superheroes, The Greatest American Hero, starring William Katt, Robert Culp, and Connie Sellecca, premiered on ABC-TV, on this date.



Two years after the show's cancellation by ABC, NBC picked up the series, and aired its reruns in a Sunday night, post-primetime time slot. This led to speculation that NBC was looking to revive the series, but their efforts only resulted in The Greatest American Heroine pilot.


March 18, 2005 –
The very popular Disney Channel series, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, starring Dylan and Cole Sprouse, premiered on this date.



Kim Rhodes was notorious for her "potty mouth" and consistently sweared on set. One of the Disney Channel representatives suggested having a "swear jar" on the set. Dylan Sprouse responded, "We've worked with Adam Sandler. We've heard it all!"


Another episode of ACME's Little Known Animal Facts


Today in History:
March 18, 1314 -
Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, was burned at the stake during the final purge of the Templars in France on this date.



Among the things de Molay admitted to the Inquisitor panel (though possibly coerced) were the obligation of Templars to deny Christ when they joined, and a sacrament that involved spitting on a crucifix.

Oh that wacky life during the Middle Ages.


March 18, 1584 -
Ivan IV of Russia died on this date. He is better known by his nickname: Ivan the Terrible. He was the first king of Russia to call himself a Caesar, probably in the hopes that Shakespeare would write a play about him. He also replaced the sale of beer and mead with vodka at state-run taverns.



He couldn't pronounce Caesar, however, so he simply called himself "zar," and subsequent arguments over whether that should be spelled czar, tsar, zar or tzar became so heated that they eventually resulted in Russian History.

And all of this led to Vladimir Putin having himself elected president in a rigged election, for another time.


March 18, 1913 -
(Once again kids follow along, it's complex.) Itinerant sailor and general layabout Philip Mountbatten's (nee Philip Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg) grandfather, Christian Wilhelm Ferdinand Adolf Georg of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (sibling to a king and two queens) was out on an afternoon stroll. This, in and of itself, is not remarkable, except for the fact that this minor Danish/ German prince had changed his name to George and became the King of Greece. Wilhelm/ George, like most royalty, went out for an afternoon stroll without any pocket change (royalty and presidents don't carry money.)

Alexandros Schinas, an alcoholic vagrant asked the King for some spare change and shot him in the back went the King refused to give him money. Wilhelm/ George died en route to the hospital,

Alexandros died five days later after he 'accidentally' fell out of a window at police headquarters.



So kids let this be a lesson to you, if you find yourself the ruler of a European nation - the change you carry, may save your life.


March 18, 1915 -
Wenseslao Moguel, suspected of taking part in the Mexican Revolution, was captured by the Mexican Constitutionalists, on this date.



He was sentenced to summary execution, and was shot 8–9 times by a firing squad in the body, and received one final shot to the head point-blank range to ensure death. He survived his execution and lived to the age of 85.


March 18, 1922 -
Mohandas K. Gandhi a British educated lawyer, was arrested and sentenced to prison in India for civil disobedience after calling for mass civil disobedience which included boycotting British educational institutions and law courts, not working for the British controlled government and the boycott of foreign-made goods, especially British goods, on this date.

Although he was sentenced to six years in prison, he only served two before being released for an appendicitis operation.


March 18, 1937 -
A massive gas explosion at the New London Junior-Senior High School in New London, Texas, killed more than 400 people, most of them children, on this date.



As a result of the explosion, legislation was passed requiring an odor to be added to natural gas so that leaks may be detected.


March 18, 1954 -
In 1948, Howard Hughes gained majority control of RKO Pictures stock; at that time RKO had becomes a struggling Hollywood studio. A steady stream of lawsuits from RKO's minority shareholders became an increasing nuisance, especially as Hughes looked to focus on his aircraft-manufacturing and TWA holdings during the Korean War years. And so our favorite bisexual billionaire, ever increasing germaphobe and aviator Howard Hughes bought RKO Pictures for $23,489,478 (and not a penny more,) on this date.

With his purchase of the studio, Hughes became the closest thing to a sole owner of a studio that Hollywood had seen in more than three decades. Six months later, Hughes sold the studio to General Tire and Rubber Company for $25 million.


March 18, 1965 -
Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov performed the first spacewalk on this day. He stayed outside his ship for 12 minutes, held to the ship by a tether.



By the time his walk was over, his spacesuit had inflated so much in the vacuum of space that he could barely get back inside the ship. With a bit of quick thinking, he opened a value to allow some of the suit’s air to bleed off without venting all of it, only barely getting back into the capsule in time.


March 12, 1965 -
Gene Sesky of Scranton lost control of the truck he was driving, hauling 30,000 pounds of bananas, barreling down Moosic Street toward central Scranton, unable to stop and crashes into cars, telephone poles, and houses on its way down the hill, injuring many people and killing Mr. Sesky.



Harry Chapin sang about of the tragic event in his song 30,000 Pounds Of Bananas.

March 18, 1970 -
Country Joe McDonald (of Country Joe and the Fish) was convicted on obscenity charges after he asks for an F, a U, a C and one other letter at a concert in Massachusetts.



The song was meant as a satire of US government attitudes toward the Vietnam War. Country Joe MacDonald released it at the height of the war after he had been discharged from the US Navy for several years. He wrote it in about 30 minutes after it popped into his head.


March 18, 1980 -
50 people were killed at the Plesetsk Space Center, Mirny, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, when a Vostok rocket exploded on the launch pad on this date.



At the time, this represented a significant percentage of the Soviet space program's scientists.


And so it goes.



And so it goes.

Sláinte agus táinte

The Feast Day of St. Patrick is celebrated on March 17.



St. Patrick is considered the father of Celtic Christianity. He founded more than three hundred churches, drove the snakes out of Ireland, invented green beer, and coined the popular slogan, Kiss me, I'm Irish (although, he himself was not.)



This year, the Citizenry of Chicago were once again encouraged to drink cheap green beer early and often before St. Patrick's Day so the Chicago River could be dyed with their vomit. (Many cities around the country, including NYC, are seeing an uptick in both coronavirus and norovirus. If you're going out to various St. Patrick Day festivities, consider wearing a mask.)



I like to joke about the dyeing of the river every year but here's the actual story behind it: Turning the Chicago River green for St. Patrick's Day first began in 1962, one year after Savannah, GA tried to dye their river green but did not succeed. Mayor Richard J. Daley suggested that the city find a way to turn Lake Michigan green for St. Patrick’s Day. According to the Chicago Tribune, the business manager of the Chicago Plumbers Union, Stephen M. Baily came up with the idea of dyeing the river with a solution that was used for identifying pollution and had the happy side effect of creating green streaks.



I'm pretty sure that St. Patrick would be horrified by St. Patrick's Day.


March 17, 1958 -
The song Tequila by the Champs was number one on the music charts on this date.





This was originally released as the B-side to a song by The Champs called Train to Nowhere in December 1957. Disc jockeys flipped the single and played Tequila instead, making the song one of the biggest hits of the '50s.


March 17, 1966 -
The Walker Brothers had their second UK No.1 hit (their first being, Make It Easy on Yourself) with the song The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore, on this date.



In the UK this is regarded as a death song, supposedly because of an incident in the mid 1960s concerning Ronnie Kray. The story goes that the legendary London gangster, armed with a 9mm Mauser, strolled into the Blind Beggar pub in London's East End to shoot and kill rival gangster George Cornell. This song was playing on the jukebox at the time and a stray bullet hit the machine, forcing the record to repeat the line "The sun ain't gonna shine, anymore, anymore, anymore…" as Cornell lay dying just a few feet away.


March 17, 1968 -
The Bee Gees made their U.S. television debut on the Ed Sullivan Show, on this date.



Besides their song, Words (which went on to become a no. 1 hit in several countries,) they sang To Love Somebody, (which went on to be one of their most covered songs.)


March 17, 1972 -
John Waters presented Divine to an unsuspecting world: Pink Flamingos, premiered in Baltimore on this date. (In 2021, this cult classic was inducted into the National Film Registery of important films that need to be preserved.)



The dog feces in the infamous final scene are real. According to director John Waters, the dog was fed steak for three days beforehand.


March 17, 1972 -
Ringo Starr released the single Back off Boogaloo, in the UK, on this date. The song peaked at number 2 in Britain and Canada, and number 9 on the U.S.' Billboard Hot 100 chart. It remains Starr's highest-charting single in the United Kingdom.



"Boogaloo" was Ringo's nickname for Paul McCartney. The song was Ringo urging Paul to stop his snide remarks in the press about the other Beatles, and just make good music ("Give me something tasty").


March 17, 1978 -
Paramount Pictures releases the bio-pix about Alan Freed, American Hot Wax, starring Tim McIntire, Fran Drescher, Jay Leno, and Laraine Newman (and featuring performances by Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and Frankie Ford,) on this date.



The film was not as successful at the box-office as the similarly titled American Graffiti had been a few years earlier.


March 17, 1982 -
Dean Jones reprised his role as Jim Douglas when CBS aired the short-lived TV version of Herbie The Love Bug on this date.



Herbie The Love Bug was a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle deluxe ragtop sedan painted in Volkswagen L87 pearl white. Under normal circumstances, the interior would be a matching white. However, Herbie's interior was painted a special non-reflective grey color so the camera and studio lights would not reflect.


March 17, 2000 -
The biographical drama, Erin Brockovich, directed by Steven Soderbergh, and starring Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, and Aaron Eckhart opened on this date.



Julia Roberts won the Academy Award for best actress for her role as Erin Brockovich and famously forgot to thank the real Erin Brockovich-Ellis in her acceptance speech. Afterwards, she was quoted as saying "It doesn't bring out the Albert Einstein moment that you hoped it would."


March 17, 2014 -
Sia released her chart smashing hit Chandelier on this date.





The song stemmed from an impromptu jam session between Sia and pop producer Jesse Shatkin. "I usually think, 'Oh this would work for Rihanna, or this would be a good one for B or Katy,'" Sia said to Ryan Seacrest. "But this time I was like, 'Uh oh I think I just wrote a full-blown pop song for myself by accident!'"


Today's moment of Zen


Today in History:
March 17, 45 BC -
In Hispania, at Munda, on this date, the last battle of the civil war between Julius Caesar and the forces of the Optimates (the traditionalist majority of the Roman Senate) who have backed Pompey, ends with Caesar victorious and Pompey’s eldest son, Gnaeneus Pompeius killed in the battle.



Caesar can now return to Rome and rule as the elected Roman dictator perpetuo rei publicae constituendae, dictator-for-life

But you don't care, you just want to continue to drink your green beer today.


March 17, 965 -
Pope Leo VIII died of a stroke during sexual congress with a prostitute on this date.

Perhaps a fine way for a man to die, but not a very appropriate choice for the Bishop of Rome. (it's OK if you hum to yourself, Back in the Saddle Again.)


March 17, 1756 -
St. Patrick's Day was celebrated in New York City for the first time (at the Crown and Thistle Tavern).

The patrons finally sober up and six years later, the celebration evolves into a parade (the first in NYC) and the St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City has become the largest celebration of the holiday in the world (drawn more revelers than any parade for the holiday in the whole of Ireland.)


March 17, 1845 -
Stephen Perry and Thomas Barnabas Daft, British inventors and businessmen patented the rubber band on this day.

They conceived of the device after experimentally slicing up rubber bottles that had been manufactured by South and Central America natives and brought to England by sailors. Other regional names for the rubber band include a binder, a laggy band, an elastic, and a gum band.


March 17, 1884 -
John Joseph Montgomery made the first manned, controlled, heavier than air flight in a glider he built. Although not publicized at the time, this flight was first described by Montgomery as part of a lecture delivered at the Conference on Aerial Navigation in Chicago, 1893 and published by Octave Chanute in Progress in Flying Machines.



While Montgomery himself never claimed firsts, his flight experiments of the 1880s are considered by several historians and organizations to have been the first controlled flights in America, or in the Western Hemisphere depending on source. After a crash destroyed his glider in 1886, Montgomery abandoned aviation, but then took it up again in 1903.


March 17, 1891 -
The SS Utopia accidentally collided with the moored battleship HMS Anson in the Bay of Gibraltar, on this date.

Utopia sank within 20 minutes; with a loss of 562 of 880 passengers and crew of Utopia and two rescuers from HMS Immortalité died in the accident. The sinking of Utopia was blamed on "grave error of judgement" of her captain John McKeague, who survived the accident.

So this shows that Utopia, sometimes, isn't the greatest place to be.


March 17, 1905 -
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, married her fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt in New York on this date.

Apparently, Roosevelt confuses himself with British Royalty by marrying his distant relative. FDR jokes with friends that, "Only on St. Patrick's Day can you marry your cousin".


March 17, 1919 -
Nathaniel Adams Coles, the premiere singer and jazz pianist was born on this date.



Cole's popularity allowed him to become the first African American to host a network variety program, The Nat King Cole Show, which debuted on NBC television in 1956. The show fell victim to the bigotry of the times, however, and was canceled after one season; few sponsors were willing to be associated with a black entertainer.


March 17, 1939 -
After German troops crossed the Czech border, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain threw all his years of careful diplomacy out the window and accused Adolf Hitler of breaking his word.

He instantly regretted having let these angry words slip, however, and subsequently resigned.


March 17, 1941 -
President Franklin D. Roosevelt opened the National Gallery of Art to the public, on this date. The National Gallery of Art would become known as one of the best museums in the world. It contains a collection of more than 130,000 paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, decorative arts, and furniture pieces.



At the time of its inception, it was the largest marble structure in the world. The museum stands on the former site of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station, most famous for being where 20th president James Garfield was shot in 1881 by Charles Guiteau.


March 17, 1958 -
The United States Navy launches the Vanguard I satellite from Cape Canaveral, on this date, following the Soviet Union’s success with their satellites Sputnik I and Sputnik II spacecraft.



Vanguard is the fourth artificial satellite to be put into space, and the first launch in the United States. The three pound satellite was developed in just two years, six months, and eight days from scratch.


March 17, 1966 -
A U.S. midget submarine, the Alvin, located a missing hydrogen bomb which had fallen from an American bomber into the Mediterranean off Spain on this date. Oops.

Alvin, accompanied by a small remotely operated vehicle (ROV) named Jason Jr., was able to conduct detailed photographic surveys and inspections of the Titanic's wreckage. Many of the photographs of the expedition have been published in the magazine of the National Geographic Society which was a major sponsor of the expedition.


March 17, 1967 –
Snoopy and Charlie Brown of Peanuts are on the cover of LIFE magazine, on this date

The rest of the Peanuts gang are miffed but say nothing.


March 17, 1999 -
Six members of the International Olympic Committee were expelled for corruption, all from poor third world countries. They received bribes from Salt Lake City totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, a practice that had been going on for years.

It should also be noted that the IOC Vice President at the time was named Dick Pound.


And on a personal note:
March 17, 1960 -
My good friend John (a fraternity brother) was born on this day.

Not to be confused with his cousin, John, who was also born but not on this day.


March 17, 1970 -
My actual fraternal brother was born at Jewish Memorial Hospital in Upper Manhattan on this date.

As was noted at the time, he must be a lucky kid as he was a Puerto Rican baby born in a Jewish Hospital on an Irish holiday.

Happy Birthday guys.



And so it goes.