You can do it - one more day to go

Tomorrow is Lantern’s Day and it marks the end of the Lunar New Year holiday.

The day before the Lantern Festival, the Lantern Display stages are built in the open square in the front of temples.





People bring their decorated lanterns to the display stage for the competition. Some lanterns might take more than a month to completely decorate.

People will also make offerings to the Goddess of Linshui, who is believed to protect women from dying in childbirth.



Fireworks still play an important part of Lantern Festival celebrations.

Once again please remember, ACME is the leading distributor of 'off brand' fireworks in the world.


Today is Curling Is Cool Day. I'm not sure how many millions of dollars will be lost with the number of people are taking the day off from work.

Do not make a rookie mistake; just encourage all those involved - Celebrate Responsibly.


February 23, 1950 -
A nearly forgotten Alfred Hitchcock film, Stage Fright starring Marlene Dietrich, Jane Wyman, Richard Todd, and Michael Wilding, premiered in New York City on this date.



In an extraordinary move for the normally controlling director,  Alfred Hitchcock provided Marlene Dietrich an exceptional amount of creative control for this movie, particularly in how she chose to light her scenes. Hitchcock knew that Dietrich had learned a great deal of the art of cinematography from Josef von Sternberg and Günther Rittau, and allowed her to work with Cinematographer Wilkie Cooper to light and set her scenes the way that she wished.


February 23, 1964 -
The Beatles appear for the third consecutive appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on this date. They performed Twist and Shout and Please Please Me and closed the show once again with I Want to Hold Your Hand.



The third broadcast, February 23, showed a performance taped earlier in the day of the original February 9th appearance.


February 23, 1967 -
The Star Trek episode A Taste of Armageddon first airs on NBC, on this date. In it, the Enterprise visits a planet fighting a war with its neighboring planet via computers.



In his memoir, Beam Me Up, Scotty, James Doohan described Gene Lyons (Ambassador Robert Fox) as being "out of his element" and "completely discombobulated" during filming. He added that it took Lyons many takes to get his lines right and that they finally "went to having him speak off-screen." Doohan speculates that Lyons, who was an experienced actor, may have been thrown off by the science fiction element as such shows were relatively rare at the time.


February 23, 1980 –
The Queen's song Crazy Little Thing Called Love hit the No. #1 spot on the Billboard Charts on this date.



Freddie Mercury acknowledged that perhaps his limited talent on the guitar helped shape the song: "'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' took me five or ten minutes. I did that on the guitar, which I can't play for nuts, and in one way it was quite a good thing because I was restricted, knowing only a few chords. It's a good discipline because I simply had to write within a small framework. I couldn't work through too many chords and because of that restriction I wrote a good song, I think."


February 23, 1985 -
The Smiths scored their first UK No.1 album with Meat Is Murder on this date. The album's sleeve uses a 1967 photograph of Marine Cpl. Michael Wynn in the Vietnam War, though with the wording on his helmet changed from "Make War Not Love" to "Meat Is Murder".



The Smiths produced Meat Is Murder themselves, assisted only by engineer Stephen Street, whom they had first met on the session for Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now.


February 23, 1991 -
Oliver Stone's bio-pix about Jim Morrison and his group, The Doors, starring Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan, Kyle MacLachlan, Frank Whaley, Kevin Dillon, and Kathleen Quinlan premiered in Los Angeles on this date.



The cave scene, in which Jim Morrison wanders out in the New Mexico desert, was shot at the Mitchell Caverns in the East Mojave Preserve in California. According to the tour guide there, Oliver Stone and the art dept. painted Indian petroglyphs at the site that wouldn't wash off. The state fined Stone and banned future film shoots at the caves.


Another unimportant moment in history


Today in History:
February 23, 303 -
Roman Emperor Diocletian issues an edict to suppress Christianity, "to tear down the churches to the foundations and to destroy the Sacred Scriptures by fire". Further edicts require that church officials engage in animal sacrifice to appease traditional Roman gods.



One can only weep that they did not have the lubricant concessions given the kind of orgies that when on that night.


February 23, 1821 -
English poet John Keats died in Rome on this date. Mr. Keats was Romantic and therefore wrote an Ode to a Nightingale, an Ode to Psyche, and even an Ode to a Grecian Urn.



None of them would have him, so the poor man died alone.


February 23, 1861 -
President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington D.C. to take office after an assassination plot was foiled in Baltimore on this date. Allan Pinkerton, founder of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, may have saved Lincoln’s life by uncovering the plot to assassinate the president-elect in Baltimore, Md.



At the detective’s suggestion, Lincoln avoided the threat by secretly slipping through the city at night.


February 23, 1836 -
The Siege of the Alamo began on this date. It was quite an adventure. For years afterward people would sigh, Remember the Alamo?



And they'd kind of nod and smile, but eventually they forgot.


February 23, 1885 -
The British hangman at Exeter Gaol tried three times on this date, to hang John Lee of Devonshire, for the murder of Emma Keyse. The trap refused to open.



His sentence was commuted to life, and he was eventually released.


February 23, 1896 -
The Tootsie Roll was introduced by Leo Hirshfield an Austrian immigrant, in his small candy shop located in New York City on this date.



He was America's first candy maker to individually wrap penny candy. Current production is over 49 million pieces a day. For many, this day should be a Federal holiday.


February 23, 1903 -
Tomás Estrada Palma, the first president of Cuba, leased Guantanamo Bay to the US in perpetuity on this date. Guantanamo Bay was the only US military base in a country with which the US did not have diplomatic relations, until a few years ago.

Guantanamo Bay is also home to Cuba's first and only McDonald's restaurant. I'm guessing it's McDonald's fault that we're still in Gitmo.


February 23, 1915 -
Nevada enacts a law reducing the quickie divorce residency requirements down to six months,



a figure further reduced in 1931 to six weeks.


February 23, 1945 -
U. S. Marines raised the flag on Mt. Suribachi (Battle of Iwo Jima) on this date.



The photograph of the event was extremely popular, being reprinted in thousands of publications. Later, it became the only photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as its publication, and ultimately came to be regarded as one of the most significant and recognizable images of the war, and possibly the most reproduced photograph of all time.


February 23, 1954 -
The students of Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania participated in the first mass vaccination of children against polio with the vaccine (using the dead virus to induce immunization) developed by Jonas Salk, on this date.



Poliomyelitis is a viral attack of the central nervous system and can cause paralysis and death by asphyxiation (I have nothing else to say.)


February 23, 1996 -
The Freeway Killer William G Bonin was executed at San Quentin on this date. He was the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the history of California.

For his last meal, Bonin requested two large pepperoni and sausage pizzas, three pints of coffee ice cream and three six-packs of regular Coca Cola.

That kind of diet will kill you.

(I'm back, I'll be posting again shortly)



And so it goes.

Just concentrate on making that lantern

Today is the 13th day of the Lunar New Year. All of the festival food should probably be done by now. Most people just want to eat something simple on this day. Some people eat vegetarian foods to cleanse their digestive system (remember yesterday was Diarrhea Day.) This day is dedicated to the General Guan Yu.



Guan Yu was born in the Three Kingdom period, (211-263 AD), after late Han Dynasty and is considered the greatest general in Chinese history. He represents loyalty, strength, truth, and justice. According to history, he was tricked by the enemy and was beheaded on this date. Some people will visit the temple of General Guan to pray for safety and money luck. Some treat General Guan as a God of Wealth. This is because General Guan won hundreds of battles and business people want to win the battle on the business deals.



It case you haven't done so yet, I can think of no better way for you to have luck today than sending me a hongbao brimming with cash.


It's also National Margarita Day. Margarita, in spanish it means Daisy





Remember, we've just come off a three-day weekend - celebrate responsibly.


February 22, 1934 -
Frank Capra's romantic comedy It Happened One Night, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, premiered at Radio City Music Hall on this date.




Claudette Colbert complained nearly every day during the making of the film. On the last day of shooting she told a friend, "I just finished making the worst picture I've ever made".


February 22, 1935 -
The Fox Film Corporation film, The Little Colonel, starring Shirley Temple, Lionel Barrymore and Bill Robinson, premiered in the US on this date. The film featured the famous stair dance sequence, making Shirley Temple and Bill Robinson Hollywood's first interracial dance couple. This scene was cut when the film played in the southern United States.



Bill Robinson claimed that the idea for his "staircase dance" with Shirley Temple came to him in a dream. He later recalled of the dream, "I was being made a lord by the King of England and he was standing at the head of a flight of stairs. Rather than walk, I danced up."


February 22, 1956 -
Elvis Presley's song Heartbreak Hotel debuted on the Billboard pop chart at No. 68, on this date.





Mae Axton, a Nashville songwriter who wrote the music for Heartbreak Hotel, was living in Jacksonville when this song was written. She got a local country singer named Glenn Reeves to do the demo for Elvis, who did the demo the way he thought Elvis would do it. Elvis liked it, and did it exactly that way.


February 22, 1956 -
The film widely considered the worst film produced by a major studio in the 50s, The Conqueror, directed by Dick Powell and starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, and Pedro Armendáriz, premiered in the US on this date.



The film was shot downwind from a nuclear test site and is considered the cause of cancer and death of many of the cast and crew.


February 22, 1977 -
The single New Kid in Town, the first release from the album Hotel California, was the Eagles' first to be certified gold for selling more than 1 million copies on this date.



Glen Frey mentioned in an interview at the time that the song was about Steely Dan whom the band saw as a new and upcoming group that was possibly taking over the spotlight from the Eagles (there has been some dispute as to whether or not Glen Frey was joking.) Given that the two bands shared a manager (Irving Azoff) and that the Eagles proclaimed their admiration for Steely Dan, this was more friendly rivalry than feud.


February 22, 2001 -
Mira Nair's wonderful Monsoon Wedding, opened in both Los Angeles and New York on this date.



A large portion of the original footage (including the wedding itself) was ruined by an airport x-ray machine. The scenes had to be re-shot, when additional funds had been raised to do so, some months later.


Another ACME Safety Film


Today in History:
Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company - George Washington

Young George Washington was born on February 11, 1731 (or so he thought.)



Unfortunately for him, England had been tenaciously clinging onto the Julian calendar - they wanted none of that Papist Gregorian calendar crap. But England finally wanted to get with the times, so in 1752, Parliament adopted the Gregorian calendar. Many prominent colonists supported the new system; including Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. Washington updated his own birthday from the old February 11th to the Gregorian February 22.



But wait, there's more - the calendar switch of 1752 included another significant change. Under the Julian system, the year began on March 25. That means a colonist who went to bed on March 24, 1700, would wake up on March 25, 1701. The new Gregorian rules set the start of the year to January 1st. This created some confusion, since anyone who was born between January 1st and March 25th in the old system would have the wrong birth year in the new one - thus George's new birthday was February 22, 1732.



So you have to wish the Father of Our Country birthday greetings for the third time this month.



Much heavy drinking ensued.


On February 22, 1862, Jefferson Davis was officially inaugurated for a six-year term as the President of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia.

He was previously inaugurated as a provisional president on February 18, 1861.

I guess his mother was proud of him.


February 22, 1902 -
Sen. Elizabeth Warren pours herself a cold one somewhere, opining the events that occurred on this date

After years of souring relations between the two Democrats from South Carolina, Sen. John McLaurin took to the Senate floor on this date and claimed that his state’s senior senator, “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman, had spread a “willful, malicious and deliberate lie” about him. Tillman, who was standing nearby, then “spun around and punched McLaurin squarely in the jaw,” according to an official write-up of the incident on the Senate webpage.

“The chamber exploded in pandemonium as members struggled to separate both members of the South Carolina delegation,” it continues. The Senate later adopted Rule 19, after voting to censure both South Carolinians over the incident. The obscure rule has so infrequently been invoked that several media sources could only find two previous votes on this question in the history of the Senate -- on January 29, 1915, and April 21, 1952, until the good senator was herself censured on February 8, 2017, for impugned Jeff Session's character.


February 22, 1925 -
I just kind of conjured them up out of my subconscious and put them in order of ascending peculiarity.



The gothic illustrator and professed 'child hater' Edward St. John Gorey was spawned on this date.


February 22, 1974 -
A failed assassination attempt on President Nixon took place on this date. Samuel Joseph Byck, an unemployed tire salesman, attempted to hijack a plane and crash it into the White House to kill President Nixon.



When police stormed the plane, he committed suicide. No one else was injured, and Nixon was unaffected, although he did resign several months later.


February 22, 1980 -
During the XIII Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York, the United States hockey team defeats the Soviet Union hockey team 4-3 on this date.



It is considered to be one of the greatest upsets in sports history (the Miracle on Ice.)


February 22, 1987 -
Andy Warhol died of complications after gallbladder surgery, though the details are hazy. The official cause was listed as cardiac arrhythmia, but speculation includes his fear of hospitals as well as possible Cefoxitin allergy. Mr. Warhol is best known for painting pictures of Campbell's Soup cans and Marilyn Monroe, although never together.





His work can be seen in museums and galleries around the world to this very day.



Campbell's Soup cans can still be found in the canned goods section of your favorite supermarket to this very day.


February 22, 1994 -
CIA agent Aldrich Ames and his wife were charged by the United States Department of Justice with spying for the Soviet Union on this date.



Somehow by 1989 Ames had acquired the unexplained wealth from his spying and did very little to conceal the spying, he somehow managed to evade being caught for five more years.


February 22, 1997 -
The first cloning of an advanced mammal, a sheep known as Dolly, was announced in the news media, on this date. Dolly, actually born on July 5, 1996, was cloned from a mammary cell -

Dolly was purportedly named after Dolly Parton.

I guess that's a compliment.


February 22, 2002 -
Charles Martin Chuck Jones, director of many of the classic short animated cartoons starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, died on this date.



At 85, Chuck signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros. to supervise the animation department. His thoughts on the contract were: "At 85 you can only think ahead for the next 50 years or so."




And so it goes.

Come on, just a few more days

Today is the 12th day of the Lunar New Year.

Technically, the Spring Festival is 15 days, but celebrations start on New Year’s eve making it 16. However, you can also say that the holiday season starts in lunar December with the Laba Festival (December 30,) making it 34 days of celebration.



Since the Lunar New Year’s Eve, people have been attending feasts, with mostly greasy and rich food. So, starting from this day on, people start to take a light, vegetarian meal.

Some family member may begin to show signs of intestinal distress, hence the day has become known as Diarrhea Day (I didn't make this up.)



Many people begin preparing for the Lantern Day celebrations, coming in three days.


February 21, 1964 -
The Rolling Stones release their first single in America, a cover of the Buddy Holly song Not Fade Away.



Phil Spector is credited with playing maracas on the record but in fact he was playing an empty cognac bottle with a 50 cent piece.


February 21, 1967 -
One Million Years B.C., starring Raquel Welch (R.I.P.,) her pre-historic brassière and a bunch of dinosaur puppets, premiered on this date.



As I've mentioned in the past, folks going to the Creation Museum, this is NOT a documentary.


February 21, 1970 -
The Jackson 5, led by 11-year old Michael Jackson, introduced themselves to America with their TV debut on American Bandstand.



The performances showed not only that the group were amazing performers, but that Michael was a superstar in the making.


February 21, 1981 -
Charles Rocket, first in the long line of performers on Saturday Night Live to drop the f-bomb, cursed live at the end of the episode in response to a question about how it felt being shot during a skit.



(the clip from SNL is no longer available from NBC.)

Due partially to the violation of broadcast standards, along with Saturday Night Live's low ratings, Rocket and most of that seasons cast and writers were fired shortly thereafter.



Few remembered that same evening, Prince appeared, unbilled, late on the show and performed Party Up. It was his first appearance on the show.


February 21, 2008 -
Paul Mawhinney's collection of 3 million vinyl records, amassed over 40 years while he owned a record store in Pittsburgh, was sold on eBay for $3,002,150, on this date. The bid was a sham, it turned out to be an unsuspecting Irishman who said his account had been hacked.



Mawhinney held onto his collection until 2013, when he sold it to the Brazilian collector Zero Freitas.



Mr. Freitas currently now owns over six million records, a collection which he intends to catalogue for public use and transform into a vast listenable archive.

Another job posting for The ACME Employment Agency.


Today in History:
(Please feel free to chart the following genealogy, as it may be on the test)
February 21, 1437 -
King James I of Scotland's grandfather, Robert II, had married twice and the awkward circumstances of the first marriage (the one with James's grandmother Elizabeth Mure - he didn't get around to marrying her until several years and children into their relationship) led some to dispute its validity. Conflict broke out between the descendants of the first marriage and the unquestionably legitimate descendants of the second marriage over who had the better right to the Scottish throne.

Matters came to a head on this date, when a group of Scots led by Sir Robert Graham assassinated James at the Friars Preachers Monastery in Perth. He attempted to escape his assailants through a sewer. However, three days previously, he had had the other end of the drain blocked up because of its connection to the tennis court outside, balls habitually got lost in it.



I'm sure the irony was not lost on James while he scrambled around in the sewer.


February 21, 1803 -
Edward Despard and six co-conspirators were executed at Horsemonger Lane Gaol, in front of a crowd of at least 20,000 spectators, for plotting to assassinate England's King George III and to destroy the Bank of England. Despard was originally sentenced, with six of his fellow-conspirators (John Wood and John Francis, both privates in the army, carpenter Thomas Broughton, shoemaker James Sedgwick Wratton, slater Arthur Graham and John Macnamara,) to be hanged, drawn and quartered.

These were the last men to be so sentenced in England, although prior to execution the sentence was commuted to simple hanging and beheading, amid fears that the Draconian punishment might spark public dissent.

This must have been a very pretty sight indeed.


February 21, 1878 -
The first telephone directory was issued with 50 subscribers, by the District Telephone Company of New Haven, Connecticut on this date.

The first prank phone call to a Mr. Lipshitz soon followed.


February 21, 1885 -
America's greatest phallic symbol, the Washington Monument, was dedicated by President Chester A. Arthur on this date. The shaft towers over 555 feet into the air and sports an aluminum foreskin.



The monument was the tallest structure in the world when completed.

Talk about feeling inadequate (and talk about smegma.)


February 21, 1916 -
The Battle of Verdun began today, which in nine months yielded 975,000 casualties and almost no change in the front line.



It is the bloodiest battle in history, and often the one remarked as having the "highest density of dead per square yard."


February 21, 1917 -
The SS Mendi steamship sank after being accidentally rammed in the British Channel by the SS Darro, an empty meat ship bound for Argentina. 607 members of the South African Labour Corps, 9 officers and 33 crew lost their lives.



The crew of the Darro made no attempt to rescue survivors. It has been suggested that this was because most of the men on the SS Mendi were black.


February 21, 1918 -
The last Carolina Parakeet, Incas, died at the Cincinnati Zoo on this date, the only native parrot species in the Eastern US. The species went extinct through a combination of loss of environment and overhunting for their decorative feathers.



Coincidentally, the last Carolina Parakeet died in the same cage in which the last Passenger Pigeon, Martha died.


February 21, 1922 -
The Italian built airship Roma crashed to the ground in Norfolk Virginia after the explosion of the hydrogen caused by the airship coming into contact with power lines turned the dirigible into a blazing inferno causing it to crash 1,000 ft to the ground.



Only 11 passengers and crew survived the crash by jumping from the airship before it hit the power lines.


February 21, 1925 -
99 years ago, the top hatted character Eustace Tilley first appeared on a magazine cover on this date. Eustace Tilley, the mascot of The New Yorker magazine, was based on an engraving of Compte Alfred d'Orsay, interpreted by house cartoonist and art director Rea Irvin.

The first issue of the New Yorker magazine, founded by Harold Ross, hit the newsstands on this date.


February 21, 1931 -
Oh, what a relief it is!...



Miles Laboratories introduced Alka-Seltzer® on this date. (One of our favorite bunkies has Proustian-like memories of living just outside the Elkhart factory site.)


February 21, 1933 -
When I was studying... there weren't any black concert pianists. My choices were intuitive, and I had the technique to do it. People have heard my music and heard the classic in it, so I have become known as a black classical pianist.





Singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist, Nina Simone (Eunice Kathleen Waymon) was born on this date.


February 21, 1937 -
The first successful flying car made its maiden flight on this date. Developed by Waldo Waterman, the Arrowbile was a hybrid Studebaker-aircraft.



The three-wheeled car was powered by a typical 100-horsepower Studebaker engine. The wings detached for storage. It flew safely but generated little customer interest, and only five were produced.


February 21, 1947 -
Edwin H. Land first demonstrated, the first instant camera, the Polaroid Land camera, during a meeting of the Optical Society of America (OSA) at the Hotel Pennsylvania, in New York City.





The camera produces a black and white photograph in sixty seconds, using development and fixer chemicals sandwiched in pods with the photographic paper and film.


February 21, 1953 -
Francis Crick and James D. Watson came up with a key insight in their discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule on this date. (And yes, they stole information from Rosalind Franklin and James D. Watson is a racist but I'm not going to wade into that thicket.)



At first they were going with a squiggle or smiley face structure until they hit upon the double helix.


February 21, 1965 -
Former Black Muslim leader El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, aka Malcolm X was shot to death on this date, in front of 400 people in New York by assassins identified as Black Muslims.



He was murdered at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. His wife, Betty Sha-bazz, pregnant with twins, was sitting in the audience along with his 4-year-old daughter Quibi-lah at the time. (New information has come to light, exonerating two of the men, Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam, who each spent more than 20 years in prison.)


February 21, 1972 -
Only Nixon could go to China - old Vulcan proverb



To celebrate the 1848 publication of The Communist Manifesto in London on this date, (written by Karl Marx with the assistance of Friedrich Engels) -





Richard M. Nixon (and St. Pat of the Good Republican Cloth Coat) visited the People's Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations, becoming the first US president to visit a country not diplomatically recognized by the US.


February 21, 1988 -
Television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart of the Assemblies of God, with tears streaming down his face, confessed sinning with a prostitute (Debra Murphree) in a Louisiana hotel room.



A second scandal with yet another prostitute emerges in 1991, further killed his evangelical career. It may not have anything to do with the situation but Jimmy is related to both Mickey Gilley and Jerry Lee Lewis.


February 21, 1995 -
Steve Fossett, a 50-year-old stock broker from Chicago, became the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon, on this day.



The American businessman, aviator, sailor, and adventurer landed in Saskatchewan, Canada, after taking off from South Korea - and he used the same balloon that successfully carried him across the Atlantic two years earlier. Unfortunately, he was killed in a crash in 2007 while piloting a light aircraft over the Great Basin Desert in California.



And so it goes.

I'm very sorry for this next delay

The eleventh day of the Lunar New Year is known as the day to welcome Zigu Shen (the Purple Lady).

According to legend, Zigu was a concubine of a rich man in ancient China. The wife of the rich man killed her in the toilet due to her jealousy. The Heavenly God had compassion for her, so he made her the god of the toilet. Zigu represents all the females who groan under the oppression in the feudal society. (I'm ambivalent about the reward Zigu got in this deal.)



Traditionally, the 11th day of the Lunar New Year is when the wife’s father would invite his son-in-law to a meal at home. It not only provides quality bonding time between the two families, but also a chance to clear out the leftovers from the celebratory food for the Jade Emperor’s birthday on the 9th, so once again the left overs can be used to entertain the sons-in law.


February 20, 1932 -
Tod Browning's incredible film, Freaks, about sideshow performers, was released on this date.



Director Tod Browning worked at a circus in his youth, both as a clown and a contortionist. His familiarity with circus folk inspired him to create this film.


February 20, 1936 -
United Artists released one of the early science fiction classics H.G. Wells The Shape of Things to Come directed by William Cameron Menzies on this date.



Soon after the premiere, a special screening of this movie was held in Washington, D.C. for U.S. government officials. H.G. Wells addressed the audience from Great Britain via a transatlantic telephone.


February 20, 1952 -
John Huston's excuse for big game hunting, The African Queen, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, opened in general release at Capitol Theater in NYC on this date.



To show her disgust with the amount of alcohol that John Huston and Humphrey Bogart consumed during filming, Katharine Hepburn drank only water. As a result, she suffered a severe bout of dysentery.


February 20, 1956 -
The wonderfully evil comedy, The Ladykillers, starring Alec Guinness and Peter Sellars, opened in New York on this date.



Writer William Rose and director Alexander Mackendrick quarreled violently during pre-production, with the result that Rose stormed off leaving his screenplay not quite finished. Mackendrick and a television comedy writer, Larry Stevens, provided the finishing touches. Later, Rose apologized profusely to Mackendrick and praised his handling of the movie lavishly.


February 20, 1970 -
The Plastic Ono Band released the single Instant Karma! in the US, on this date.



George Harrison played guitar and Billy Preston played piano on this song.


February 20, 1979 -
The iconic series, This Old House, starring Bob Vila premiered on PBS, on this date.



The show was originally intended to be a one-time, 13-part series documenting the renovation of a house, the show has now been running for 44 seasons, and has produced spin-offs, a magazine, and websites.


February 20, 1988 -
The Pet Shop Boys (featuring Dusty Springfield) song What Have I Done To Deserve This? climbed to No. #2 on the Billboard charts in America, on this date. The song marks Dusty Springfield first big hit since 1969.



The song's co-writer Allee Willis was later responsible for the Friends theme, I'll Be There For You. Among her other songwriting credits are September and Boogie Wonderland by Earth, Wind & Fire and Neutron Dance by the Pointer Sisters.


February 20, 1996 -
The VH-1 series Storytellers premiered with the epsiode featuring Ray Davies, on this date.



The series became popular around the world. Following the show's debut, VH-1 would continue producing new editions for nearly two decades.


February 20, 2009 -
Conan O'Brien made his last appearance as host of Late Night, on this date.



O'Brien, who succeeded David Letterman as the Late Night host in 1993, left the later timeslot to replace a reportedly retiring Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show. (Intead of retiring, Leno became host of a weeknight, prime-time program; comedian Jimmy Fallon replaced O'Brien as the Late Night host.) OTD in Film History


Today's moment of Zen


Today in History:
February 20 is just one many dates on which Francois-Marie Arouet may have been born in 1694.

Francois-Marie was a supremely intelligent, fiercely independent man and was therefore instructed to leave Paris.



Each time he was kicked out, however, he simply came back, said something witty, and was kicked out yet again.

Eventually the French invented reverse psychology. They invited Francois-Marie back from his latest exile and threw a big party for him. The shock of his reception killed him and Paris has mourned his loss ever since.

Except now they call him Voltaire.


February 20, 1703 -
The Mount Gay Estate opened in Barbados, on this date.



It is the oldest existing brand of rum in the world.


February 20, 1829 -
The Yuengling Brewery opened in Pottsville Pennsylvania, on this date.



It is the oldest brewery still operating in the U.S.


February 20, 1872 -
The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened its doors to the public for the first time. The Museum first was housed at the Dodworth Building at 681 Fifth Avenue between 53rd and 54th Streets.



The Museum remained in its first home until 1873, when it moved to larger quarters in the Douglas Mansion on West 14th Street. In 1880, the Metropolitan opened its first building at its current location in Central Park. Currently, its permanent collection contains more than two million works and most of it you can see on-line. (That's a lot of art to dust.)


February 20, 1907 -
Pres. Theodore Roosevelt signed an immigration act which excluded "idiots, imbeciles, feebleminded persons, epileptics, and insane persons" from being admitted to the US on this date.

Many of the current members of Congress prove this time and again: Certain political operatives in this country should rejoice that there is not a 'sanity clause' for the native born citizenry.


February 20, 1935 -
Although the Antarctic had been discovered almost 200 years before, Caroline Mikkelsen became the first woman to set foot on the continent on this day.

She was part of a Danish expedition along with her husband Captain Klarius Mikkelsen. A mountain in Antarctica was named in her honor.


February 20, 1947 -
A chemical mistake at the O'Connor Electro-Plating Co. in Los Angeles caused a blast that destroyed/damaged more than 55 structures in a 300-foot radius, killing 15 people and injuring 150 more.



The incident resulted in the city's first ordinance stipulating regulations for the storage, transportation, production, processing, and use of hazardous chemicals and led to one of the first Hazmat Dictionaries in the U.S.

Oops.


February 20, 1962 -
... Godspeed John Glenn.



While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn orbited the Earth three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes, becoming the first American to orbit the Earth. Remember, NASA hadn't invented the astronaut diaper yet; I bet he had to pee something wicked.



The people of Perth in Australia all turned their lights on at the same time on February 20, 1962 to greet astronaut John Glenn who was orbiting above them in Friendship 7.


February 20, 1967 -
Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.



Kurt Cobain, musician and lead guitarist of seminal grunge band Nirvana, was born on this date.


February 20, 1971 -
An erroneous warning is emitted on the Emergency Broadcast System causing a number of stations to go off the air (for more than 30 minutes,) and others to completely ignore the alert (thus pointing out that many key stations would not react to any emergency broadcast over the system.)



So remember (as they have proven in Hawaii) this just a test, unless it's not.

February 20, 1980 -
After some heavy drinking, Bon Scott, vocalist for heavy metal band AC/DC, was found in a friend's automobile - he apparently choked to death on his own vomit.



His family was comforted in the knowledge that he hadn't choked to death on someone else vomit.

February 20, 1984 -
You'll never get to heaven if you break my heart!!!

Ballerina Julia Pak married Heung Jin Moon, son of Sun Myung Moon, religious icon, on this date. The ceremony was a tasteful affair save one small detail - Heung Jin Moon was prevented from attending the service in person; he had died in an auto accident the previous December.

As adult Moonies are only allowed to enter Heaven once they are married; there was a dire need for this awkward necro-ceremony.

Don't forget, the traditional gift given for the 40th zombie wedding anniversary is ruby - nothing says I love you more to the undead than rubies = it sets off their bleed shot eyes.


February 20, 1998 -
Ice skater Tara Lipinski of the U.S. became the youngest gold medalist in Winter Olympics history when she won the ladies’ figure skating title in Nagano, Japan, aged 15 years and 8 months.



The previous year Tara Lipinski was the youngest champion women's World Figure Skating Champion at the age of 14 years and 10 months.



And so it goes.

(Very sorry for the delay today.)

Today is the birthday of the god of stone. ACME Construction would like to wish everyone a lucky and prosperous Lunar New Year. On this day, it is forbidden to move any stone, including stone roller, stone mill and stone mortar, so this day is also known as “Shi Bu Dong”(meaning do not move any stone). So remember, with ACME, when you need something stuck in the ground, it stays put.

In addition, it is also forbidden to cut into a mountain for rock and build a house with rocks, or bad things will happen to the crops. On this day, families will burn incense and candles for the stones, and offer pancake to the god of stone.



In Chinese, shí meaning 10 and shí also meaning stone, have the same pronunciation. Thus the tenth day of the Lunar New Year is conveniently considered the birthday of the stones, in the hope of shí quán shí mi, everything is perfect. In ancient China, stones were regarded as the foundation of the Earth, thus the birthday of stones is synonymous with celebrating the Earth’s birthday.



On day after the Jade Emperor's birthday, there is so much food left from the birthday's ceremony. People may have to consume all the vegetable, animal scarifies, cakes and fruit on the 10th lunar day of the year. This is an extended feasting of the Jade Emperor's birthday.



Tomorrow will be the 11th day and the day after that - the 12th. Are you really still celebrating?


It's Generic Executive Office Holder of the Government Day.



So let's hear it for all the generic Presidents. Please remember to have Jimmy Carter in your thoughts today


February 19, 1912 -
Prizes were inserted into a Cracker Jack box for the first time on this date.



In ensuing decades, over seventeen billion prizes have been "awarded" to Cracker Jack purchasers. Among the numerous Cracker Jack prizes offered across the years are miniature plates, puzzles, books, bookmarks, pinball games, plastic figurines, and self-adhesive stickers.

Robert Rueckheim, grandson of F.W. Rueckheim (the driving force behind the Cracker Jack brand,) served as the model for Sailor Jack, whose image first appeared in advertisements in 1916 and was printed on every Cracker Jack box beginning in 1918. Sadly, Robert died of pneumonia at the age of 8, but Sailor Jack lives on today alongside his dog, Bingo, who was said to be modeled after a stray belonging to Henry Gottlieb Eckstein, developer of the "waxed sealed package," Cracker Jack is sealed in.


February 19, 1968 -
Everyone's favorite adult, Fred Rogers began telling everyone that It's a beautiful year in the neighborhood when the national broadcast of his program, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood premiered on this date.





Guests on the show were often surprised to find that although Rogers was just as gentle and patient in life as he was on television, he was nevertheless a perfectionist who did not allow "shoddy" ad-libbing. He believed that children were thoughtful people who deserved programming as good as anything produced for adults on television.


(Sorry for this Earworm) -
Badfinger were a British pop band signed to the Beatles' label, Apple. One of their best songs was Without You which appeared on their second album No Dice. It was released as a single on November 9, 1970. Paul McCartney once described the ballad as "the killer song of all time".



Harry Nilsson started a four week run at No.1 cover of the Badfinger song Without You on the Billboard charts on this date in 1972. Nilsson first came across this song at a Laurel Canyon party in 1971 and thought it was a Beatles song. Badfinger was signed to Apple Records, The Beatles' label, and their version of Without You was produced by Beatles associates Geoff Emerick and Mal Evans.



Nilsson's version added an orchestra and gave the song a dramatic production. When Nilsson recorded it, he initially played the song slow and dark, accompanied only by piano. Producer Richard Perry recalled to Mojo magazine April 2008 that he had to persuade an unwilling Nilsson to record it as a big ballad: "I had to force him to take a shot with the rhythm section. Even while we were doing it, he'd be saying to the musicians, 'This song's awful.'" (This was a staple of middle school dances in the early 70s.)



A very odd piece of trivia: Mariah Carey had her first UK No.1 with her version of the Badfinger song Without You on this date. (Carey's version was released on January 24, 1994, just over a week after Nilsson had died following a heart attack). Both As the song's writers, Peter Ham and Tom Evans should have been set for life, but Badfinger's label, Apple Records, collapsed in 1973 and they never got their due. Peter Ham and Tom Evans (members of Badfinger and writers of the song) committed suicide, (Ham in 1975 and Evans in 1983) after an ongoing battle to receive royalties from the song.


February 19, 1974 -
KISS appeared on Dick Clark's IN CONCERT! on this date. This marks their first time on national television.



One of the songs they preformed for the show was Nothin' to Lose. How KISS got a song about anal sex on national TV back in 1974 passed the censors is amazing.


February 19, 1977 -
Manfred Mann's Earth Band's cover of Bruce Springsteen's Blinded By The Light hits #1 on the Billboard Charts in America, on this date.



Manfred Mann's version replaces the line "cut loose like a deuce" with "revved up like a deuce." In their version, "Deuce" was commonly misheard as "Douche." Springsteen's original line makes a lot more sense - a deuce is a 1932 Ford hot rod. On his Storytellers special, Springsteen said (in a jesting manner): "I have a feeling that is why the song skyrocketed to #1."


February 19, 1982 -
The Wes Craven film Swamp Thing, starring Louis Jourdan, Adrienne Barbeau, Ray Wise and Dick Durock, was released on this date.



This was the second time Dick Durock played a green, monstrous, mutated version of a "normal" man in a comic book adaptation, after the two-part Incredible Hulk episode The First.


February 19, 1983 -
The Patti Austin and James Ingram duet Baby, Come To Me hits #1 on the Billboard Charts in America, on this date.



Quincy Jones produced this track. Both Austin and Ingram had worked with Jones in the past and signed to his record label, Qwest. Austin had another connection with Jones as well: He's her godfather.

Another job posting from The ACME Employment Agency


Today in History:
February 19, 1329 -
(Antipope) Nicholas V presided at a bizarre ceremony in the Duomo of Pisa, at which a straw puppet representing his rival, Pope John XXII and dressed in pontifical robes was formally condemned, degraded, and handed over to the secular arm (to be "executed").

John XXII had the last laugh when he excommunicated Nicholas V in April 1329

and had him imprisoned until his death in August 1333.

Oh those wacky Antipopes.


February 19, 1473 -
Nicolaus Copernicus (or Mikolaj Kopernik or Nicolaus Koppernigk - apparently he was running some sort of ponzi scheme at an early age and was giving different names to different people) was born in Poland on this date.



He stated an early theory that the Earth and the planets move around the Sun that led the way to our understanding of planetary movement.


In the presidential election of 1800, Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson drew to a tie. The House of Representatives broke the tie by throwing their weight behind Jefferson, making him president, on February 17, 1801. Burr was given the vice-presidency as either a consolation prize or a practical joke.



Like many other people, Vice-President Burr was often irritated by Alexander Hamilton. Unlike most other people, he shot and killed him. Although it had been a fair duel, the vice-president was indicted for murder. He was never actually arrested for the shooting, nor was he removed from office, because there was no controlling legal authority in place to prevent a vice-president from shooting Alexander Hamilton.



Instead of reviving Burr's political career, the duel helped to end it. Burr was charged with two counts of murder. After his term as vice president ended, he would never hold elective office again. And his next plot to gain power would end with charges of treason.

Civilized political discourse?

(A subsequent constitutional amendment that would have made it illegal for members of the executive branch to shoot Alexander Hamilton was defeated on the grounds of its limited usefulness to the deceased.) After serving out his term as VP, Mr. Burr moved to the southwest and decided to establish his own empire. Fortunately there were controlling legal authorities that prohibited the establishment of empires. President Jefferson had him arrested on February 19, 1807.



Burr was ultimately acquitted. (His descendant Raymond Burr would go on to restore a bit of luster to the family name as Perry Mason and as spokesmodel for Raymond Burr Nipple Rouge - one of our favorite corporate sponsors - but that's for another day.)


February 19, 1910 -
Another unimportant moment in history:



Remember, take human bites!


February 19, 1960 -
The cartoon-strip The Family Circus by Bil Keane debuted in newspapers on this date.

For several months prior, it had been called The Family Circle.


February 19, 1986 -
The Soviets launched the first part of space station Mir, (the orbiting laboratory–the main module that included the crew quarters, with airlocks for docking and more,) and with it, a new phase in space exploration, on this date.



Mir, which means both peace and world in Russian, would provide the home base for a permanently manned international complex orbiting the Earth– and was occupied for 10 years of its 15 in orbit.


February 19 is also notable for the 1995 marriage of Pamela Anderson to rocker Tommy Lee. Their marriage is best remembered for having produced the most widely-distributed honeymoon pictures in the history of the world.

Sorry folks, you're going to have to find the link to the video yourself.


February 19, 1997 -
Supreme Chinese leader and one time replacement for Diana Ross, Deng Xiaoping died on this date.



Dying takes the shine off of being Supreme.



And so it goes.