Celebrate with a little Fra Diablo sauce

With your newsfeed jam packed with other, more heady news, some may not remember that we are celebrating cephalopods this week - today we also celebrate Squid Day/Cuttlefish Day.



Calamari could loom large in your day today.


Today is also Hug a Drummer Day.

Without drummers, we would soon notice how different and even weak music can be, so hail a day to celebrate such percussionists!


October 10, 1936 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Boulevardier from the Bronx , directed by Friz Freleng, was released on this date.



The first Merrie Melodies cartoon to use Merrily We Roll Along as its theme. This cartoon also debuts a blue Warner Bros. shield, which would be used until sometime in 1938.


October 10, 1941 -
The last movie W C Fields starred in, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, premiered on this date.



W. C. Fields wanted to call the film The Great Man. When Universal executives insisted on the title Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (taken from the end of his previous film Poppy), Fields said, "What does it matter, they'll never get that on a marquee. It'll probably boil down to 'W. C. Fields - Sucker.'"


October 10, 1953 -
The wonderful Stan Freberg record, St. George and the Dragonet, was No. 1 on the Billboard Charts, on this dated.



The B side was another Dragnet spoof, Little Blue Riding Hood, based on the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood.


October 10, 1956 -
George Steven's sprawling epic, Giant, premiered in NYC on this date.



Rock Hudson and James Dean did not get along. Although later rumors would suggest that Dean had rejected a pass from Hudson, most sources reported that each had little respect for the other's approach to acting, and Hudson resented what he considered Dean's unprofessional behavior.


October 10, 1957 -
Guy Williams galloped across TV screens as the masked hero, when Zorro, debuted on ABC-TV on this date.



Although Zorro was the most popular show in its Thursday evening slot, the series was pulled in 1959 due to legal wrangling between the Disney Studios and the ABC network. Disney tried to keep the character before the audience by shooting four one-hour episodes for another anthology series, but by the time the lawsuit was settled, the studio had decided the public had lost interest in the character and the series was cancelled.


October 10, 1958 -
The private-eye series 77 Sunset Strip starring Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Roger Smith, and Edd Byrnes, premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



The ownership battle over the rights to this show was the reason that Roy Huggins left Warner Bros. He'd created the concept behind the series, and Stuart Bailey was his creation, but the pilot episode was released theatrically, and had not been written by Huggins at all. It was a Warner Bros. property because the actual writer had been working for hire and had no legal claim to it, and so legal ownership of the show belonged to them.


October 10, 1959 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Wild About Hurry, directed by Chuck Jones, and starring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, was released on this date.



The roadrunner breaks the wall in a non-traditional way to end the short. This technique would be used several times in the roadrunner coyote series.


October 10, 1961 -
Elia Kazan's bittersweet romance, Splendor in the Grass, starring Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty, premiered on this date.



In the bath scene, Natalie Wood's wrist is very briefly revealed. She normally always wore a bulky bracelet or long sleeves to hide the protrusion of a bone in her wrist which she thought to be an ugly anomaly.


October 10, 1962 -
The British Broadcasting Company banned Monster Mash -- the Halloween-themed novelty tune by Bobby "Boris" Pickett -- for being "offensive."



The BBC felt the song was offensive (but never specifies precisely why) and banned it from the airwaves until 1973. It was re-released in 1973 and the song rose to #3 in the charts in the UK. By this time, Boris Pickett was driving a cab in New York City to earn a living.


October 10, 1964 -
The Shangri-Las released their operatic hit, Leader of the Pack, on this date.



This was written by Ellie Greenwich, Jeff Barry and producer Shadow Morton. Morton was looking for a follow-up to the first Shangri-Las' hit, Remember (Walking in the Sand). He had a motorcycle and was part of a motorcycle gang in his youth, so he, Greenwich and Barry decided to use that as the theme. Together, they came up with the rather dramatic story, being sure to name the characters in the lyric (Betty and Johnny) so the listener could form an attachment. A hallmark of the song is the spoken dialogue that sets up the story.



Later in 1964, The Detergents recorded a parody of this song called Leader Of The Laundromat.


October 10, 1966 -
The lumbering epic, based on the eponymous 1959 novel by James A. Michener, Hawaii. directed by George Roy Hill, and starring Julie Andrews, Max von Sydow, Richard Harris, Gene Hackman, and Carroll O'Connor premiered on this date. (If you don't blink, you can see Bette Midler, in her first screen appearance and an extra.) While the film opened to only middling reviews, it did quite well in the box office,



Fred Zinnemann was originally slated to direct and Audrey Hepburn and Sir Alec Guinness were set to star. Unfortunately, conflicts with producer Walter Mirisch and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, as well as numerous delays caused by the weather, forced him to walk off the project shortly before filming started. George Roy Hill was brought in to direct.


October 10, 1968 -
One of the silliest movies Jane Fonda (or anyone else, for that matter) ever made, Barbarella, landed in US theatres on this date.



Lobby card stills and set photographs survive, showing footage of a seduction scene between Barbarella and the Black Queen on a bed. However, this footage has never appeared in any print of the movie.


October 10, 1969 -
King Crimson releases their debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, considered by many to be the first progressive rock album.



An Atlantic Records ad at the time of the album's release claimed it featured the heaviest riffs on record since Mahler's 8th Symphony. "I know it had to cost ten thousand pounds to make," The Who's Pete Townshend was quoted as saying. "I can't tell if it's worth it."


October 10, 1980 -
The very funny comedy, directed by Howard Zieff, Private Benjamin, starring Goldie Hawn, Eileen Brennan, and Armand Assante, went into general release in the US on this date.



This movie was the first ever movie screenplay especially written and tailored for Goldie Hawn. This was also the first film that she ever acted as a producer. Hawn said of this in the biography Pure Goldie: The Life and Times of Goldie Hawn by Marc Shapiro: "I didn't plan on becoming a producer... I only wanted to create better roles for myself, and I loved the idea of Private Benjamin so much that I felt it would be the perfect opportunity to finally control my own destiny."


October 10, 1986 -
Warner Bros. released the quirky musical comedy, True Stories, starring David Byrne, John Goodman, Swoosie Kurtz, and Spalding Gray in the US on this date. Talking Heads recorded an album featuring their versions of the songs featured in the movie.



The Puzzling Evidence segment of the film was inspired by the Church of the Sub-Genius, a parody religion to which David Byrne is an adherent. In church lore, Puzzling Evidence is the name of the assassin of the religion's fictional founder, J.R. "Bob" Dobbs.


October 10, 2000 -
The comedy series The Geena Davis Show, starring Geena Davis (of course), Peter Horton, Mimi Rogers, and Kim Coles, premiered on ABC-TV, on this date.



Geena Davis had tried out for archery in the 2000 Olympics but fell short of qualifying for the team, ranking 24th place, which increased her obsession with the sport. Hoping to go to the 2004 Olympics, Davis persistently practiced on set, and as a gag, she gave costar Peter Horton a T-shirt with a giant target on it.

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


Today in History:
October 10, 1780 -
Over 48 hours, a slow-moving hurricane decimates Barbados, killing 4,326 (however according to the island's governor, "fortunately few people of consequence were among the number").

Over the next week, the catastrophic storm system moves on to Martinique (9,000 dead) and St. Eustatius (4-5,000). The unprecedented Great Hurricane of 1780 remains the deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record.


October 10, 1813 -
It's Joe Green's birthday today.



Verdi was so beloved in Italy that while he lay dying in the Grand Hotel in Milan, the horses in town had their hooves covered in cloth, so the noise would not disturb him.


October 10, 1886 -
Pierre Lorillard's family were wealthy tobacco magnates who owned country property in Tuxedo Park, just outside of New York City. At a formal ball, held at the Tuxedo Club in October 1886, the young Lorillard wore a new style of formal wear for men that he designed himself.



He named his tailless black jacket the tuxedo after Tuxedo Park. The tuxedo caught on and became fashionable as formal wear for men.


October 10, 1910 -
You think "The Skull and Bones" Society rule this country. Several of the readers and I (and well as George Stephanopoulos) are members of the fraternity, Tau Epsilon Phi. (It causes me a great deal of grief to think that Rick Santorium and I share a common fraternity.)

Tau Epsilon Phi (TEF, commonly pronounced "TEP") is a predominantly American fraternity with approximately 40 active chapters, chiefly located at universities and colleges in the Northeastern United States. The organization was founded on this date, by ten Jewish men at Columbia University, as a response to the existence of similar organizations who would not admit Jewish members. The national headquarters is currently located in Voorhees, New Jersey and the official colors of the organization are lavender and white (although most chapters use purple instead of lavender).

But don't ask about our secret handshake or whose pinball machine we had in the basement.


October 10, 1911 -
Jasper Newton "Jack" Daniel was the distiller and the founder of the Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey company. He was known as an impatient man; he wouldn't wait for anything.



One day, coming to work early, he was unable to open his safe, having trouble remembering the combination. In frustration he kicked it, injuring his toe. The toe became infected and he died of blood poisoning on this day.


October 10, 1911 -
The Chinese revolution began in Hankow, on this date.



The revolution spread rapidly, resulting in the abdication of six-year-old Henry Pu-Yi, the Academy Award-winning "Last Emperor" of China.


October 10, 1913 -
Two years later on this date, President Woodrow Wilson was bored and puttering around the White House. He started fiddling around with things on his desk and pressed a button.

This triggered a blast which exploded the Gamboa Dike down in Panama and somehow the Panama Canal was completed on this date and a popular palindrome was born.

Why the China Revolution and the completion of the Panama Canal are connected is anybody's guess?


October 10, 1957 -
A fire in the Windscale plutonium production reactor (later called Sellafield) north of Liverpool, England, spread radioactive iodine and polonium through the countryside and into the Irish Sea. Livestock in the immediate area were destroyed, along with 500,000 gallons of milk.



At least 30, and possibly as many as 1,000, cancer deaths were subsequently linked to the accident. The event, known as the Windscale fire, was considered the world's worst nuclear accident until the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. (Then both were dwarfed by the Russian Chernobyl disaster in 1986.) PM Harold Macmillan ordered the disaster hushed up.


October 10, 1964 -
NBC-TV aired the opening ceremonies of the XVIII Olympiad in Tokyo on this date. The 1964 Summer Games were the first Olympics held in Asia, and the first time South Africa was barred from taking part due to its apartheid system in sports



It was the first live color TV program to be transmitted to the U.S. by satellite. (And ok smartpants, the games were help in October to avoid the mid summer heat of Japan and the typhoon season in September.)


October 10, 1967 -
The Outer Space Treaty, formally known as the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, signed on January 27, 1967 by more than sixty nations, went into effect on this date.



The treaty prohibits the use of nuclear weapons in space and forbids any government from claiming a celestial resource such as the Moon or a planet.


October 10, 1973 -
Bribe-happy Vice President Spiro T. Agnew finally resigned, after pleading Nolo contendere to federal income tax evasion on this date.



It should be noted that humorist Dave Barry points out that one can rearrange the letters in "Spiro Agnew" to spell "Grow A Penis."

October 10, 1985 -

... A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.



As to all, cheap wine hawkers, voice-over whores and movie legends, Orson Welles, whose remarkably innovative Citizen Kane was named the best American-made picture of all time in a 1998 American Film Institute poll, died of a heart attack at the age of 70 on this date.

Yul Brynner, Russian-born, Academy Award-winning Broadway and Hollywood actor died on October 10, 1985 (the same day as Orson Welles, his co-star in The Battle of Neretva) in New York City. The cause of death was lung cancer brought on by smoking. Throughout his life, Brynner was always seen with a cigarette in his hand. In January 1985, nine months before his death, he gave an interview on Good Morning America, expressing his desire to make an anti-smoking commercial.

The clip from that interview was made into just such a public service announcement by the American Cancer Society and released after his death; it includes the warning "Now that I'm gone, I tell you, don't smoke."



If only he listened to himself.



And so it goes

Bet you've never seen a live one

The celebrations of Cephalopod Awareness Days keep rolling along - Today we celebrate Nautilus Night, highlighting all the lesser-known extant cephalopods -



Hopefully the shocking nature of the documentary wasn't too off-putting for your holiday celebrations


Today is Fire Prevention Day. Fire Prevention Day is part of Fire Prevention Week and is observed on this date, in remembrance of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The observance of this day was initiated by President Calvin Coolidge in 1925.



Both the day and the week has been set asidefor young people and adults to learn how to make their homes safer against accidental fires.


A wiser man than I once said - A corpse is meat gone bad. Well, and what then, is cheese? Corpse of milk, which leads us to the fact that today is also Moldy Cheese day.



Am I really going to encourage you to eat rotting cheese, (while bleu, Camembert, Gorgonzola, maytag blue, Roquefort, brie, and Stilton are perfectly fine,) I also never thought I'd live through the age of multi-indicted White House candidate.


October 9, 1937 -
The Looney Tunes short, Rover's Rival, directed by Bob Clampett, and starring Porky Pig ,was released on this date.



This was the first cartoon to end with Porky breaking out of the Looney Tunes drum saying his trademark line "Th-Th-Th-That's All Folks!".


October 9, 1948 -
The Merrie Melodies short, The Foghorn Leghorn, directed by Bob McKimson, and starring Foghorn Leghorn, Henery Hawk and George K. Chickenhawk, was released on this date.



Foghorn Leghorn kicks over a couple of signs, with one saying Shnook! and the other saying Loud Mouth'd. These signs are similar to the Burma Shave signs that appeared along the rural highways of most of the United States from 1926 to 1963.


October 9, 1968 -
The musical film, Finian's Rainbow, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Fred Astaire, Petula Clark, and Tommy Steele, opened on this date.



Because of its satire on racism, this popular 1947 Broadway musical was considered such a hot potato in Hollywood that studios would not touch it unless they were allowed to change the story. Its original creators, E.Y. Harburg, Burton Lane, and Fred Saidy held out, and by 1968 it was able to be filmed with very few changes.


October 9, 1969 -
BBC's Top Of The Pops refused to play the No. #1 hit in the country, Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus, on this date.



Serge Gainsbourg's song Je T'Aime Moi Non Plus, was considered one of the first 'orgasm records' and the BBC was not able to cope with such explicit lyrics and Jane Birkin's moans and groans.


October 9, 1969 -
The Supremes released the single Someday We'll Be Together, on this date. It will be Diana Ross' last recording with the group. Ross announced she was leaving The Supremes in November, and by the end of December that year, it hit #1 on the Hot 100, giving the group one last chart-topper, bringing their total to 12.



This was originally recorded by the duo Johnny & Jackey (Johnny Bristol and Jackey Beavers) in 1961. Their version went nowhere, and the duo were defunct a short time later. Jackey Beavers and Johnny Bristol wrote this song while they were touring in the Midwest. Most of it was written while they were driving from gig to gig. Harvey Fuqua, who was their label boss at Tri-Phi Records, also is credited as a writer. Fuqua was married to Berry Gordy's sister, Gwen, and later joined Berry's company, Motown Records, where he worked when this song was issued by The Supremes.


October 9, 1971 -
Van Morrison released one of his most popular songs, Wild Night, on this date.



Ted Templeman, who would later produce another Van (Halen), produced the Tupelo Honey album with Morrison. Musicians to perform on this track include Ronnie Montrose on electric guitar, John McFee on pedal steel guitar, Jack Schroer on saxophone and Luis Gasca on trumpet.


October 9, 1984 -
The popular children's show Thomas The Tank Engine And Friends begins its run on BBC-TV, featuring a narrator by the name of Ringo Starr on this date.



Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Percy, Toby, Annie, Clarabel, Henrietta, Bertie, and The Fat Controller (known in the American dubs as "Sir Topham Hatt") are the only characters who have appeared in every season of the series.


October 9, 1986 -
The FOX network debuted Joan Rivers' new The Late Show on this date.



At first, Tribune Entertainment was supposed to hire Nell Carter as a talk show hostess for her own show, when it didn't work, consequently, the job was given to Joan Rivers, and the show was retooled.


Another unimportant moment in history.


Today in History:
October 9, 28 BC -
Caesar Augustus dedicated the Temple of Apollo to his patron god Apollo, on the Palatine Hill in Rome, on this date.

Not to upset those of you with delicate natures, but just think of having the lubricant concession with the amount of unnatural act committed that night.


October 9, 1000 -
Leif Erikson discovered Vinland and became the first known European to walk in North America on this date (or not). In 1964, the United States Congress authorized and requested the President to proclaim October 9 of each year as Leif Erikson Day.

The day after Leif Erikson Day in 1965, Yale University astonished the world with its Vinland Map, a 1440 transcription of a map believed to have been originally drawn by Ericson himself (or possibly Eriksson, but certainly not Eiriksson) around 1000 A.D., and which appeared to depict parts of Canada. Just a few years ago, more evidence supporting the authenticity of the map was revealed, lending further support to the conclusion that there were Vikings in North America five centuries before Columbus soiled his first diaper.

This is an exciting development, because it will almost certainly necessitate the development of Viking reservations and the establishment of Viking-run casinos.



Still more exciting are recent scientific findings that suggest Caucasians may have existed in North America prior to being displaced by the so-called Native Americans who were later visited by Vikings, prior to being utterly displaced by still more Caucasians.



But this is also deeply troubling, because there was probably someone here before those original Caucasians.



In the interests of fairness, I enthusiastically endorse the endowment of every American with their own casino.


October 9, 1582 -
It's true - tomorrow never knows.

Once again, because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain. This leads to more mass confusion and most of the populace just go back to bed and give up belief in calendars.


On this date in 1776 a group of Spanish Missionaries, led by Father Francisco Palou founded Mission San Francisco de Asis in what is today San Francisco.

Their arrival displaced a small Native American population and therefore came to be known as the "missionary imposition."


October 9, 1855 -
Isaac Singer was issued a patent (US No. 13,661) for the sewing machine motor, which went on to revolutionize the textile industry.



That same year, SINGER becomes the largest selling brand of sewing machines internationally. The SINGER brand is awarded the first prize at the World’s Fair in Paris, France.


October 9, 1872 -
A traveling dry goods salesman named Aaron Montgomery Ward launches the world’s first mail-order general merchandise business on this date. His first catalog, which was a page long, listing 163 items, would be the first to be called a Wish Book. Ward initially writes all of the catalog’s copy himself.



The catalog will rapidly grow in popularity, so much so that it will soon be imitated by other enterprising merchants, most notably Richard Warren Sears, who published his first general catalog in 1896. Montgomery Ward will grow into one of the largest retailers in the U.S., but its sales will decline through the late twentieth century, forcing the chain to close in early 2001.


October 9, 1888 -
The Washington Monument, designed by Robert Mills, was completed and the public was first admitted on this date.



Steam powered elevators carried visitors to the top in 12 minutes. It underwent a $1.5 million renovation in 1998.


October 9, 1915 -
Took my girl to a baseball game, sat her in the front ...

President Woodrow Wilson and his then fiancé, Edith Galt (and soon be the first female U.S. President, but that another story ...) watched game two of the World Series, at Baker Bowl, between Boston and Philadelphia on this date.

Wilson, an avid baseball fan, becomes the first U.S. President to attend a World Series.


October 9, 1934 —
While the Boomtown Rats don’t like Mondays, King Alexander I of Yugoslavia didn’t like Tuesdays. (Alexander is one of the rare European royals not related to Queen Victoria in any measurable way.)

On account of the deaths of three members of his family on a Tuesday, Alexander refused to undertake any public functions on that day. On Tuesday October 9, 1934, however, he had no choice, as he was arriving in Marseille to start a state visit to the Third French Republic, to strengthen the two countries' alliance in the Little Entente. While being driven in a car through the streets along with French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou, a gunman, Vlado Chernozemski, stepped from the street and shot the King and the chauffeur. The Minister was accidentally shot by a French policeman and died later (I hate when that happens.)

It was one of the first assassinations captured on film; the shooting occurred straight in front of the cameraman, who was only feet away at the time. The cameraman captured not merely the assassination but the immediate aftermath; the body of the chauffeur (who had been killed instantly) became jammed against the brakes of the car, allowing the cameraman to continue filming from within inches of the King for a number of minutes afterwards.

The assassin, Vlado Chernozemski - driver for the leader of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, Ivan Mihailov, and an experienced marksman - was cut down by the sword of a mounted French policeman, then beaten by the crowd. By the time he was removed from the scene, he was already a bloody pulp.



The film record of Alexander I’s assassination remains one of the most historic pieces of newsreel footage in existence, alongside the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the funerals of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Emperor Franz Josef of Austria, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy.


October 9, 1958 -
Pope Pius XII suffered a most 'unfortunate' accident after his demise. The Pope died during an exceptionally hot summer.



When Pius died, Professor Riccardo Galeazzi-Lisi who was treating the ill pontiff (Galeazzi-Lisi was not a doctor but an optometrist) turned embalmer, trying to hide his crimes.

Rather than slow the process of decay, the doctor-mortician's self-made technique sped it up, leading the Holy Father's corpse to disintegrate rapidly, turning purple, with the corpse's nose falling off. The stench caused by the decay was such that guards had to be rotated every 15 minutes, otherwise they would collapse. The condition of the body became so bad that the remains were secretly removed at one point for further treatments before being returned in the morning.



Very messy indeed.


October 9, 1967 —
On October 8, Che Guevara was captured while leading a detachment with Simeon Cuba Sarabia in Bolivia. According to some soldiers present during the skirmish, as they approached Guevara, he allegedly shouted, “Do not shoot! I am Che Guevara, and I’m worth more to you alive than dead.” Upon hearing of his capture, the news was relayed to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, via CIA stations in various South American nations.

The President of Bolivia, René Barrientos promptly ordered his execution upon being informed of his capture. Guevara was taken to a dilapidated schoolhouse in the nearby village of La Higuera where he was held overnight. Early the next afternoon he was executed. The executioner was Mario Terin, a Sergeant in the Bolivian army who had drawn a short straw after arguments over who got the honor of killing Guevara broke out among the soldiers. To make the bullet wounds appear consistent with the official story sold to the public, Felix Rodriguez, the CIA asset, ordered the soldier who pulled the trigger to aim carefully to make it appear that Che had been killed in action during a clash with the Bolivian army, and thus to help cover up the official secret assassination. Guevara received multiple shots to the legs, so as to avoid maiming his face for identification purposes and simulate combat wounds in an attempt to conceal his ex judicial execution.



Che Guevara had some last words before his death; he allegedly said to his executioner, "I know you are here to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man." His body was lashed to the landing skids of a helicopter and flown to neighboring Vallegrande where it was laid out on a laundry tub in the local hospital and displayed to the press.



After the execution, Rodríguez took several of Guevara’s personal items, including a Rolex watch, which he would proudly show to reporters in the years that followed. Today, some of these belongings, including his flashlight, are on display at CIA headquarters. After a military doctor surgically amputated his hands for identification purposes, Bolivian army officers transferred Guevara’s body to an undisclosed location and refused to reveal whether his remains were buried or cremated.

And that, boys and girls, was your U.S. tax dollars at work in 1967.


October 9, 1973 -
All this new stuff they call rock ’n’ roll, why, I’ve been playing that for years now… Ninety percent of rock-and-roll artists came out of the church, their foundation is the church.



Sister Rosetta Tharpe, pioneering gospel singer and recording artist, died on this date.


October 9, 1974 -
Obscure German businessman Oskar Schindler, passed away at the age of 66 in Frankfurt, Germany on this date. A member of the Nazi Party, he ran an enamel-works factory in Krakaw during the German occupation of Poland, employing workers from the nearby Jewish ghetto. When the ghetto was liquidated, he persuaded Nazi officials to allow the transfer of his workers to the Plaszow labor camp, thus saving them from deportation to the death camps.



In 1944, all Jews at Plaszow were sent to Auschwitz, but Schindler, at great risk to himself, bribed officials into allowing him to keep his workers and set up a factory in a safer location in occupied Czechoslovakia. By the war's end, he was penniless, but he had saved 1,200 Jews. In 1962, he was declared a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem, Israel's official agency for remembering the Holocaust. According to his wishes, he was buried in Israel at the Catholic cemetery on Mount Zion.


October 9, 1978 -
Jacques Brel was certainly not alive and well and living in Paris on this date.



Mr. Brel, the Belgian-born French cabaret singer, had died earlier in the day.


October 9, 1985 -
Happy Birthday John (and Sean.)

Central Park's Strawberry Fields was dedicated on John Lennon's birthday, by Yoko Ono, who had underwritten the project, on this date.


Before you go -



Diwali is in 30 days,



Halloween is in 22 days,



I'm not going to remind you that the General election is in 26 days, you're scared enough. But Thanksgiving is in 48 days.




Hanukkah is in 56 days.



and Christmas is in 77 days.

Plan accordingly!



And so it goes

Everybody, down to the octopus' garden

Since 2007, ACME has been proud to recognize that every year from the 8th to the 12th of October, International Cephalopod Awareness Days come around to teach the world about Cephalopods!

Today is Octopus Day, celebrating all the eight-armed fellows.

This event is all about celebrating and sharing how fascinating and incredible they are!



The day also brings attention to threats like pollution, climate change, and overfishing that endanger these fascinating marine animals.


Today is also Fluffernutter day. Celebrate by bringing fresh white bread, peanut butter, and marshmallow cream together.



While this may be a childhood favorite for some - it's causing me to gag to even think about.


October 8, 1925 -
One of the most expensive movie made, at the time (at $3.9 million,) Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ premiered on this date.



Producer Irving Thalberg was short of "hedonist slave girls", so he called up Hal Roach and Mack Sennett to ask a favor: to loan out their famous "Bathing Beauties". They were happy to oblige, as many girls were making their film debuts. Among the group of 20 or so girls who eventually appeared in the film: Janet Gaynor, Carole Lombard, Fay Wray and Joyzelle Joyner.


October 8, 1927 -
The Hal Roach studio released The Second Hundred Years short, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy - the first Laurel and Hardy film with them appearing as a team on this date.



Laurel and Hardy's heads were shaved for their appearance in this film, and their hair had not yet grown back in their roles in Call of the Cuckoos, released a week after this film.


October 8, 1938 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Little Pancho Vanilla, directed by Frank Tashlin, was released on this date.



This short has seldom aired on American television since the 1990s due to heavy Mexican stereotyping.


October 8, 1960 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Hopalong Casualty, directed by Chuck Jones, and starring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, was released on this date.



The first of the so-called "blue sky" Road Runner cartoons; starting with this cartoon, the sky color was blue and remained that way for the duration of the theatrical cartoons.


October 8, 1966 -
The first Doctor Who episode to feature the Cybermen (the first episode of the Doctor Who serial The Tenth Planet) aired on this date.



The episode is the last episode to star William Hartnell as the First Doctor (and Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor).


October 8, 1972 -
Richard Boone starred in the TV series Hec Ramsey, about a gunfighter intrigued with new methods of criminology at the turn of the previous century, which premiered on this date.



In the fall of 1972, NBC moved its successful Wednesday night Mystery Movie series consisting of Columbo, McCloud, and McMillan and Wife to Sunday nights and added a fourth show, Hec Ramsey, while turning the original slot over to three new mysteries (Banacek, Madigan, and Cool Million). Hec Ramsey was a product of Jack Webb's then prolific production company. The series, which ran for two seasons (a total of ten 90 minute to 2 hour episodes) was superficially a Western, but it was set in the waning days of the Wild West when science was beginning to play a more significant role in crime solving than gunplay.


October 8, 1975 -
While a critical success, the comedy film, Hearts of the West, directed by Howard Ziff, and starring Jeff Bridges, Andy Griffith, Blythe Danner, Donald Pleasence, and Alan Arkin, which opened on this date, was a financial disaster. It has since become a cult classic. The film was a remake of the 1932 film, Make Me a Star.



Part of a cycle of movies made during the mid-1970s about Tinseltown, old Hollywood, and its Golden Age, including the silent film era. The pictures include Inserts, Valentino, Nickelodeon, Silent Movie, The Wild Party, The Last Tycoon, The Day of the Locust, and The World's Greatest Lover.


October 8, 1977 -
The final masterpiece of Luis Buñuel, That Obscure Object of Desire premiered on this date.



Ángela Molina recalls her audition with Luis Buñuel: "I enjoyed it very much, and the first meeting I had at the studios seemed like going to see the doctor because - and I've not mentioned this before to anyone - he had to see me naked. There were nude scenes, and I imagine he needed convincing that I was what he required for his film, or whatever. He had to see the way I looked. I was wearing the same dressing gown that appeared in the film. He put his glasses on. It was a long changing room, and he was at one end of it, and then he said, with an absolutely loving and affectionately paternal smile... let's see, I don't remember what exact word he used, but I knew I had to expose myself. So, I opened my dressing gown for a moment like a little girl, because that's what I was. I was very innocent at that time. And then he put his glasses on immediately and said: "Cover yourself! Cover yourself! All this as though they were uncovering Tutankhamun's mummy," Molina laughing says.


October 8, 1980 -
... Take a look at these hands. They're passing in-between us ... ...



Today is the 46th anniversary of Talking Heads' fourth studio Remain in Light was released on this date


October 8, 1983 -
Francis Ford Coppola's under-rated arthouse teen drama Rumble Fish, starring Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Vincent Spano, Diane Lane, Diana Scarwid, Nicolas Cage, Dennis Hopper, and Tom Waits, opened in limited release in NYC on this date.



While directing One from the Heart, Francis Ford Coppola received a letter from a class of schoolchildren in the American Midwest. The children said, since he was such a good director, they had all enjoyed Apocalypse Now, would he please consider tackling their favorite literary work, a book called The Outsiders, by the children's author S.E. Hinton. Coppola agreed. While shooting The Outsiders, Coppola decided to make a second film back-to-back with it - a smaller, more personal work. The result was Rumble Fish, and it, too, is based on a book by S. E. Hinton.


October 8, 1983 –
Spandau Ballet’s single True, was No. 1 on the Billboard Charts, on this date.



The lyrics for this song were inspired by a crush Spandau Ballet's Gary Kemp had on Altered Images singer and Gregory's Girl star Clare Grogan. "I was infatuated with Clare Grogan," he told The Guardian. "I met her on Top of the Pops and, at one point, traveled up to Scotland to have tea with her and her mum and dad. Although my feelings were unrequited and the relationship was platonic, it was enough to trigger a song."


October 8, 1984 -
The critically acclaimed TV movie The Burning Bed starring Farrah Fawcett, Paul Le Mat, and Richard Masur, premiered on NBC-TV on this date.



Based on the true story of Francine Hughes, who was accused of murdering her husband on March 9, 1977 in Dansville, Michigan. She was found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity, and her case created a legal precedent for how domestic violence cases were to be handled in the future.


(Oops, I was supposed to post this yesterday)
Another episode of ACME's Little Known Animal Facts


Today in History:
October 8, 876 -
The First Battle of Andernach occurred on this date between the West Frankish king Charles the Bald and the East Frankish king Louis the Younger, near Kettig southeast of Andernach.

The results of the epic battle was Charles' complete defeat. Thusly proving medieval royalty did not put much thought into the feeling of their progeny when naming them - Charles was not in fact bald but quite hairy and Louis was already 42 when this battle took place. To make matters worse, Louis had a younger brother known as Charles the Fat, who was probably not fat. Really, parents can be so cruel.

Don't worry, this won't be on the test.


October 8, 1582 -
Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day (and the four previous days) does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.



This leads to mass confusion and most of the populace just go back to bed and wait for tomorrow.


October 8, 1869 -
Franklin Pierce, an American politician and the fourteenth President of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857 is to date the only president from New Hampshire and was the first president born in the nineteenth century.



His good looks and inoffensive personality caused him to make many friends, but he suffered tragedy in his personal life (all three of his children died in childhood - don't ask how his third child died) and as president subsequently made decisions which were widely criticized and divisive in their effects, thus giving him the reputation as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.



After losing the Democratic nomination for a second term, Pierce reportedly quipped "there's nothing left to do but get drunk" (quoted also as "after the White House what is there to do but drink?") which he apparently did frequently. He once ran over an elderly woman while driving a carriage drunk. Franklin Pierce died in Concord, New Hampshire on this date at 64 years old, from cirrhosis of the liver, thus ending his miserable life.


October 8, 1871 -
Mrs O'Leary's cow started The Great Chicago Fire that destroyed more than 17,000 buildings, killed more than 300 people and left 90,000 homeless, on this date.



Bad cow.

Catherine O'Leary seemed the perfect scapegoat: she was a woman, immigrant, and Catholic - a combination which did not fare well in the political climate of the time in Chicago. This story was circulating in Chicago even before the flames had died out and was noted in the Chicago Tribune's first post-fire issue. Michael Ahern, the reporter that came with the story would retract it in 1893, admitting that it was fabricated.



In 1997, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution exonerating Mrs. O'Leary - and her cow - from all blame.



Occurring the same day as the Great Chicago fire, a forest fire broke out at Peshtigo, Wisconsin, eventually killing about 2,500 people while burning some 850 square miles including, Holland, Michigan, and Manistee, Michigan (making it the largest lost of life by fire in the United States.)


October 8, 1918 -
Sgt. Alvin York (Gary Cooper) of Tennessee became a World War I hero by single-handedly capturing a hill in the Argonne Forest of France, killing more than 20 enemy soldiers and capturing 132 others on this date.



What makes this feat all the more amazing is that York original applied and was denied Conscientious Objector status because of his religious beliefs.


October 8, 1919 -
The first U.S. transcontinental air race began with 63 planes competing in the round-trip aerial derby between California and New York. Each way took about three days.



Seven men lost their lives during the race - flying was extremely hazardous at the time. Even the winner, Lieutenant Belvin W. Maynard, would meet his death three years later, while stunt flying at a county fair in Rutland, Vermont, on September 7, 1922.


October 8, 1928 -
Police raid 20 speakeasies in New York City in an effort to crack down on illegal liquor sales on this date.



New York City Police remain blind drunk, wandering the streets for three days afterward.


October 8, 1945 -
A patent for microwave oven was filed (US patent No. 2,495,429) by Percy LeBaron Spencer, who accidentally discovered that microwaves melted a chocolate bar in his pocket (the first item to be intentionally cooked in a microwave was popcorn.)



Spencer, an eighth-grade dropout and electronic wizard, worked for the Raytheon Manufacturing Corporation of Massachusetts developing a radar machine using microwave radiation. The first commercial microwave was produced nine years later and sold for $2,000.


October 8, 1948 -
When I was younger, I was ready to go off at any time. My wife, Linda, and I would go out to the Limelight in New York, and I would see people and be able to freeze them with a look. People were even too scared of me to tell me that people were scared of me.



Johnny Ramone (nee John William Cummings) the lead guitarist for The Ramones was born on this date.


October 8, 1956 -
New York Yankees pitcher Donald James Larsen pitches the first perfect game in a World Series - no walks, no hits, no runs.



His perfect game was the only no-hitter of any type ever pitched in postseason play until Doc Halladay pitched one on October 6th, 2010.


October 8, 1993 -
Ted Danson appeared in black face at a Friars Club roast for Whoopi Goldberg on this date.

His offensive comments amused Whoopi Goldberg but the incident becomes a great embarrassment.


October 8, 2011 –
On September 26th, 2011 Mikey Welsh, the former bassist for Weezer, posted on Twitter, “Dreamt I died in Chicago next weekend (heart attack in my sleep). Need to write my will today” followed by, “Correction – the weekend after next”.



He died on this date from a heart attack, possibly brought on by a drug overdose, in his sleep in a Chicago hotel room.

If only they had read their Nostradamus.



And so