Do you like waffles?

August 24, 1869 -

Today is National Waffle Day.



It the anniversary of Cornelius Swarthout (of Troy, New York) receiving the first U.S. patent for a stovetop Waffle Iron (U.S. patent No. 94,043).


August 24, 1937 -
William Wyler's crime-drama film, Dead End, premiered in NYC on this date.



William Wyler originally wanted to film on location on the streets of New York, but producer Samuel Goldwyn insisted that the movie be made in the studio. Art director Richard Day was assigned to design the sets and made one of the most convincing and elaborate sets in film history.


August 24, 1940 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Ceiling Hero, directed by Tex Avery, and starring Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, was released on this date.



The oft-repeated line "Calling Barranca" is a reference to the film Only Angels Have Wings.


August 24, 1966 -
One of the quintessential films of the 60s, Alfie, directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Michael Caine, Millicent Martin, Julia Foster, Jane Asher, Shirley Anne Field, Vivien Merchant, Eleanor Bron, and Shelley Winters opened in the US on this date.



Several well-known actors (including Richard Harris, Laurence Harvey, James Booth, and Anthony Newley) turned down the title role, due to the then taboo subject matter of abortion. Despite having played Alfie on Broadway, Terence Stamp categorically declined to reprise the role on film, thus giving his good friend, and then roommate Michael Caine, the breakthrough role of his career.


August 24, 1966 -
The (still surprising good) sci-fi film, Fantastic Voyage, premiered on this date.



Medical schools, at least as late as the 1980s, showed clips from this movie to illustrate various concepts in human anatomy, physiology, and especially immunology.


August 24, 1967 –
Encouraged by Pattie Harrison, The Beatles and their partners - minus Ringo and Maureen Starkey, whose second child, Jason, had been born just five days earlier -attended a lecture by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane, London, on this date.



This was a highly creative period for The Beatles. They wrote many songs, most of which were later included on their self-titled 1968 album, commonly known as the White Album. Ultimately, their association with the Maharishi ended abruptly after rumors surfaced of his inappropriate behavior with female devotees. John Lennon later expressed disappointment, stating that they had been mistaken about the Maharishi’s integrity.


August 24, 1968 -
The Rascals' song People Got to Be Free topped the charts on this date.



Felix Cavaliere claimed that he had to fight for this song, since Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records was worried that a message song would hurt the Rascals' career. Cavaliere prevailed and the song became the group's biggest hit.


August 24, 1977 –
The third in a series of films based on the Peanuts comic strip, Race For You Life, Charlie Brown, directed by Bill Melendez and Phil Roman, and voiced by Duncan Watson, Stuart Brotman, Gail Davis, Liam Martin, and Melanie Kohn, opened on this date.



This is the only theatrical Peanuts film to have villains (being the bullies). In every other film, the conflict comes from the characters themselves.


August 24, 1979 -
NBC-TV introduced the girls of Eastland School, an all-girls boarding school in Peekskill, New York, to audiences when The Facts of Life premiered on this date.



The pilot Rough Housing may have been the very first children's program on network television to discuss gender confusion and sexual identity crises among youth; as well as anti-gay bullying among teenagers.


August 24, 1981 -
Rolling Stones Records released the 16th British and 18th American studio album by The Rolling Stones, Tattoo You, on this date.



The Rolling Stones were getting ready for a contractual world tour and the band was barely speaking to one another by late 1980. To promote their worldwide American Tour 1981/European Tour 1982, the band's production team combed through unused recordings from prior sessions, some dating back almost a decade, to come up with songs for the album.


August 24, 1985 –
Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers' single, Real Love went to No. 1 on the Billboard country singles chart on this date.



The song, the title track from Parton’s latest album, was Parton and Rogers’ second country chart-topper as a duet act.


August 24, 1988 -
The Joan Micklin Silver romantic comedy, Crossing Delancey, starring Amy Irving, Peter Riegert, and Sylvia Miles, premiered on this date.



The pickle store as referred to in the film was Guss' Pickles, located at 35 Essex Street, below Delancey Street. It was a New York tradition, since 1920, closed their location on Essex Street in 2020. Currently, The Pickle Guys, located at the corner of Essex and Grand Streets, continues that tradition.


August 24, 1994 -
Singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley's sole album Grace was released on this date.



The song Grace was the album's first single, and it was also released as a video. Buckley performed the song for a long time before he recorded it, and an early demo appears on an album he made with Gary Lucas that was released posthumously called Songs to No One 1991-1992. Lucas and Buckley were part of a project called Gods & Monsters when they wrote this song; they also collaborated on the Grace track Mojo Pin.


August 24, 2013 -
Lorde's debut single Royals goes to #1 on the Alternative chart, making her the first female solo artist to top the charts since Tracy Bonham did it in 1996 (five months before Lorde was born) with her single Mother Mother.



Ella Yelich-O'Connor is a New Zealand singer-songwriter. Inspired by her love for such royals as Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI of France, and the last Tsar, Nicholas II of Russia, she adopted the moniker of Lorde (The 'e' is pronounced silently). Yelich-O'Connor was discovered when her now manager, Scott Maclachlan, saw a video of her performing at a Belmont Intermediate School talent show when she was 12.


Word of the Day


Today in History:
August 24, 79 –
Pliny the Elder, who was not as old as his father, Pliny the Dead, witnessed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum being fired by Mount Vesuvius on this date. Vesuvius, ever the vengeful volcano god buried those happening Roman vacation spots, apparently to punish the debauchery that made the towns famous. Tens of thousands of people perished only to have plaster casts made centuries later of the hollows their bodies once occupied.



Once again, People, this is what happens when a city goes on the cheap and starts sacrificing any old whore rather than a proper virgin. One ever so faithful reader suggests that you skip visiting Pompeii and visit Ercolano (Herculaneum) instead. It is not so crowded and there are some cool little bars near the ruins where you can enjoy views of the bay of Naples and Vesuvius.


August 24, 1572 -
Troops loyal to the French crown alongside Catholic civilians massacre the Protestant Huguenots of Paris, estimates range between 20,000 and 100,000 deaths. At news of this carnage of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, a gleeful Pope Gregory XIII ordered celebrations and a medal to be struck.



Sometimes, you just have to be embarrassed to be a Catholic.


August 24, 1680 -
Colonel Thomas Blood, Irish adventurer who stole the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London in 1671, died on this date.



Captured after the theft, he insisted on seeing King Charles II, who had a reputation for liking bold scoundrels. Charles not only pardoned him, but granted Blood Irish lands worth £500 a year!


August 24, 1814 -
The White House and other public buildings in the District of Columbia were torched by the invading British army on this date.



The President's wife, Dolley Madison and Paul Jennings, her husband's enslaved manservant, are torn away from Mrs. Madison's ice cream and candy making duties to save a couple of chairs,



and an unfinished portrait of some dead Virginian Slave holder, Masonite and dope smoker.


August 24, 1853 -
It is believed that the original potato chip recipe was created by chef George Crum, at Moon's Lake House near Saratoga Springs, New York, on this date.



He was fed up with a customer (the popular myth wrongly identifies him as Cornelius Vanderbilt) who continued to send his fried potatoes back, claiming that they were too thick and soggy. Crum decided to slice the potatoes so thin that they couldn't be eaten with a fork, nor fried normally in a pan, so he decided to stir-fry the potato slices. Against Crum's expectation, the guest was ecstatic about the new chips. They became a regular item on the lodge's menu under the name Saratoga Chips. They soon became popular throughout New York and New England.

You don't want to know how Crum got the vinegar flavor for that damn chip.


August 24, 1932 -
Amelia Earhart flew from Los Angeles to Newark, becoming the first woman to complete a non-stop, transcontinental flight on this date.

She completed the journey in 19 hours and five minutes.


August 24, 1958 -
Red China commenced the shelling of the islands of Quemoy and Matsu, which hold one-third of Chiang Kai Shek's troops, on this date. The United States threatens nuclear retaliation for this, but the American people do not support the stance.



A very strange compromise is worked out, permitting China to shell the islands on odd dates and Chiang Kai Shek's troops to resupply the islands on even dates.


August 24, 1959 -
Three days after Hawaiian statehood,

Hiram L. Fong was sworn in as the first Chinese-American U.S. senator while Daniel K. Inouye was sworn in as the first Japanese-American U.S. representative.


August 24, 1968 –
France exploded its first hydrogen bomb, thus becoming the world's fifth nuclear power.



The Germans break out in an ever slight sweat. (The 1998 film Godzilla uses this particular test as the basis for the monster Godzilla, an infant green iguana mutated by the fallout from the blast.)



Another reason to hate the French.


August 24, 1989 -
Pete Rose was suspended from baseball for life for gambling on this date.



Unfortunately, Pete may never get into the Hall of Fame but the Cincinnati Reds did put up a statue of him outside the stadium a couple of years ago.


August 24, 2006 -
The planet Pluto was reclassified as a "dwarf planet" by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) on this date. Pluto's status was changed due to the IAU's new rules for an object qualifying as a planet.



The other planets have been picking on Pluto ever since.



(Damn you, Neil deGrasse Tyson!)



And so it goes.

Never mind the applesauce.

August 23, 1934 -
The Merrie Melodies short, The Girl at the Ironing Board , directed by Friz Freleng, was released on this date.



The animated film was probably inspired by Busby Berkeley's musical production number The Girl at The Ironing Board in the 1934 musical Dames, which featured a version of the same song and also had dancing long underwear and union suits.


August 23, 1935 -
The Looney Tunes short, Buddy the Gee Man, directed by Arthur King and starring Buddy, was released on this date.



Final Looney Tunes short featuring the character Buddy.


August 23, 1940 -
Preston Sturges' Oscar winning satire on political corruption, The Great McGinty, premiered on this date.



On August 19, 1939, Paramount issued a check to contract writer Preston Sturges to buy the story and screenplay of this movie, in the amount of $10. Sturges promised to sell the script for that amount if he could direct. The studio took him up on it and the film was a hit and won an Academy Award for the screenplay, probably making it the cheapest Oscar-winning script in history.


August 23, 1946 -
Howard Hawks' noir classic, The Big Sleep, starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Dorothy Malone, premiered in NYC on this date.



According to Lauren Bacall, production was such fun that they got a memo from Jack L. Warner saying, "Word has reached me that you are having fun on the set. This must stop."


August 23, 1947 - The Merrie Melodies short, The Foxy Duckling, directed by Arthur Davis, was released on this date.



It's implied that the duck caused the demise of the fox, something that likely pushed the censorship envelope at the time. Two years later, Mazurka Mouse would have a similarly unsettling ending.


August 23, 1952 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Going! Going! Gosh, directed by Chuck Jones, starring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, was released on this date.



Both characters break the fourth wall without actually saying anything.


August 23, 1957 -
20th Century Fox released its film adaptation of the Ernest Hemingway novel, The Sun Also Rises, on this date.



Upon seeing it for the first time, Ernest Hemingway walked out after the first 25 minutes. He criticized most aspects of the film heavily, and said the only good thing about the film was Errol Flynn's performance. If Hemingway walked out after 25 minutes claiming Flynn's performance was the only good thing, he couldn't have seen it as Errol didn't appear until 54 minutes in.


August 23, 1959 -
Charlie Brown's sister Sally was born on May 26, 1959, with Charlie Brown receiving a telephone call from the hospital and dashing out of the house yelling that he had a new baby sister.

Although much talked about, and the cause for a celebration that included Charlie Brown passing out chocolate cigars, it was not until this date, that she finally made her first appearance.


August 23, 1965 -
The British science fiction film, Dr. Who and the Daleks, directed by Gordon Flemyng, and starring Peter Cushing, Roy Castle, Jennie Linden, and Roberta Tovey was released on this date.



Contrary to popular belief, it was not inconsistent for The Doctor to be shown as a human scientist named Dr. Who. At that time, in the TV series, the lead character had been explicitly named as human (in 1965's The Sensorites), implied as inventor of the TARDIS (in 1965's The Chase) and would soon be identified as Doctor Who. (in 1966's The War Machines). The later revelations that he was an alien time-traveler, specifically a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, had not yet been devised.


August 23, 1969 -
The Rolling Stones hit, Honky Tonk Women reached number one on the pop-singles charts on this date.



The single was given away to all the fans who helped clean up after The Stones free concert in Hyde Park on July 5, 1969. This was the first concert Mick Taylor played with the band. A life-size cutout of Brian Jones, who died three days earlier, was kept on stage and the show was dedicated to him.


August 23, 1980 -
David Bowie's single, Ashes To Ashes went to No. 1 on the UK charts on this date..



This song can be seen as a sequel to Bowie's 1969 hit, Space Oddity. It revisits the fictional astronaut, Major Tom, who is now in space. He has regained communication with Ground Control and tells them he is happy, but they deem him nothing but a "junkie, strung out in heavens high, hitting an all-time low." Fans believe this to be Bowie's autobiographical piece about his fight against drug abuse and other personal demons.


August 23, 1985 -
The Toho Studio and New World Pictures released the heavily re-edited American version of The Return of Godzilla (a sequel of the original Gojira movie), Godzilla 1985 (a sequel of the American Godzilla, King of the Monsters) starring the great Raymond Burr, Ken Tanaka, and Yasuko Sawaguchi, on this date.



Contrary to popular belief, Raymond Burr was actually quite proud of his association with Godzilla since his debut in the Americanized version of the film from 1956. It came as a surprise to friends and colleagues when he enthusiastically returned for the international release of the 1985 sequel. While working on that film, he used the clout he'd gained from his success on Perry Mason to ensure the film wasn't too heavily edited and Koji Hashimoto's original intentions were preserved.


August 23, 1985 -
Atlantic Releasing Corp releases the comedy film Teen Wolf, directed by Rod Daniel and starred Michael J. Fox, on this date.



Michael J. Fox's fame rose steadily while filming, due to the increasing success of Family Ties. By the end of production, Fox needed more security than he did at the beginning.


August 23, 1996 -
One of the most bizarre films ever made (starring Marlon Brando) The Island of Dr. Moreau, was released on this date.



The original director, Richard Stanley, had spent four years developing the project, only to be fired after four days. When Val Kilmer encountered Richard Stanley during the wrap party, he apologized for costing the director his job. Marlon Brando later offered to compensate Stanley. To his regret, he didn't take it.


August 23, 1998 -
We got to hang out with Eric Forman and his friends and family in our huckapoo shirts and polyster pants, when That 70s Show, starring Topher Grace, Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Danny Masterson, Laura Prepon, Wilmer Valderrama, Debra Jo Rupp, and Kurtwood Smith, debuted on FOX on this date.



The episode was shot approximately three months before the show would begin its official shooting schedule after being picked up by Fox. Due to this, certain hairstyles and set designs are slightly different then they would be in the next episode.


Another album from the discount bin at The ACME Record Shoppe today.


Today in History:
August 23, 1305 -
Scottish patriot William Wallace (Mel Gibson) was persuaded to take an early retirement on this date.



According to one eyewitness: "He was hung in a noose, and afterwards let down half-living; next his genitals were cut off and his bowels torn out and burned in a fire; then and not till then his head was cut off and his trunk cut into four pieces. At this point he was given a gold watch, and a humorous card that we had all signed."


August 23, 1912 –
There is a strange sort of reasoning in Hollywood that musicals are less worthy of Academy consideration than dramas. It's a form of snobbism, the same sort that perpetuates the idea that drama is more deserving of Awards than comedy..



Eugene Curran, dancer, actor, singer, film director, producer and choreographer was born on this date.


August 23, 1914 -
Japan declared war on Germany on this date.

Much confusion and embarrassment ensues about 25 years later when this point is brought up at a meeting of the Axis powers.


August 23, 1926 -
Rudolph Valentino died from peritonitis and severe pleurisy, on this date, following an emergency appendectomy. His death caused a worldwide frenzy among his fans, sales of the Sheik condoms soared.



Thing is, he probably would have survived if the surgeons weren’t so freaked out by the fact that "Valentino" was their patient. They were so terrified of operating on such a world famous person, that they procrastinated for several hours, dramatically worsening his condition.

Sometime it sucked to be Valentino.


August 23, 1927 -
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, convicted of murder in 1921, were executed in Boston in spite of worldwide protests, on this date.



Their guilt is still disputed.


August 23, 1939 -
Joachim von Ribbentrop and Josef Stalin signed a non-aggression pact, allowing Germany to attack Poland and the USSR to invade Finland without fears of reprisal on this date. Three years later, the Battle of Stalingrad began. (The Battle of Stalingrad was fought by Germans and Russians, in case the irony was lost on you.)



Moral: secret wartime pacts with evil conquering bastards aren't any more reliable in the real world than they are in a game of Risk.


August 23, 1942 -
The Battle of Stalingrad began on this date, which many historians think of as the turning point of World War II. Hitler had already conquered all of Europe except for England, Switzerland and Monaco and he began the invasion of Russia in the summer of 1941 with an army of four million men. The Germans reached Stalingrad on this day in 1942 and flew more than 2,000 bombing raids in just the first day of the battle. They hit oil storage tanks that flowed into the river and caught fire and laid siege to the city. It went on for months.



It's been called the most terrible battle the world has ever known, and in the end the Russians won, thanks to the approach of winter. The German troops were not prepared for fighting in below zero weather.

By February of 1943, all the German soldiers had surrendered or been killed, the first defeat of Hitler's army.


August 23, 1944 -
At 10.30 am on this date, an American Liberator Bomber 42-50291 took off from Warton on a routine test flight. A huge explosion, thought to have been sparked by a bolt of lightning, tore the huge plane apart and parts of the fuselage hit the Holy Trinity Church of England School in Freckleton, England.



61 people were killed in the Freckleton Air Disaster, 38 were children; it was the greatest loss of civilian life outside London during the Second World War.


August 23, 1944 -
Romanian Prime Minister Ion Antonescu was dismissed by King Michael (another cousin of both Queen Elizabeth and her late itinerant sailor husband Philip Mountbatten), paving the way for Romania to abandon the Axis in favor of the Allies.



King Michael organized a coup against the pro-Nazi dictator, Marshal Ion Antonescu, but was double-crossed by Joseph Stalin and betrayed by the Allies who ceded the country to the Russians at the Yalta summit in 1945.


August 23, 1966 -
Once again ... No, no, don't leave. There's a beautiful Earth out tonight.

Lunar Orbiter 1, the first American spacecraft to orbit the Moon (launched August 10, 1966,) took the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon.


August 23, 1968 -
The Youth International Party designated Pigasus as their choice of candidate for U.S. President on this date. The boar hog was introduced at a press conference outside the Chicago Civic Center, with the slogan "They nominate a President and he eats the people. We nominate a President and the people eat him."



The gathering is broken up shortly thereafter when the Chicago PD took into custody the Yippie organizers and their pig.


August 23, 1973 –
Jan-Erik Olsson walked into a Stockholm bank, Kreditbanken, on this date, and almost immediately his bank robbery had gone wrong, and turned into a hostage crisis.



Over the next six days the hostages begin to sympathise with their captors, leading to the term "Stockholm syndrome". Many psychiatrists do not believe that Stockholm syndrome is a psychiatric diagnosis but rather the term is used to describe a "defence mechanism that helps the victim" cope with a traumatic situation.


August 23, 2012 -
An 80 something grandmother, Cecilia Gimenez, took it upon herself to restore a fresco of Jesus called Ecce Homo painted by Elias Garcia Martinez at the Sanctuary of Mercy Church near Zaragoza, Spain.



Unfortunately her attempt at restoration did not turn out the way she hoped and the fresco was turned into an image almost resembling a hairy monkey. The woman hoped that it could be further restored by professionals and had gone into it with good intentions.

And you all know what is paved with good intentions.



And so it goes.

It was a first for Disney

August 22, 1929 -
Walt Disney released the animated short film The Skeleton Dance (The first of Disney's Silly Symphony series,) animated by Ub Iwerks, on this date.



Worried that he would be too dependent on Mickey, Walt Disney wanted to diversify. Carl W. Stalling came up with the idea of producing "musical novelties" (which would later become Silly Symphonies). He even came up with the idea of the dancing skeletons for the first of the series (as a child he had seen an ad in The American Boy magazine for a dancing skeleton and the image stuck with him).


August 22, 1930 -
W.C. Fields' classic short, The Golf Specialist, premiered on this date.



The picture of Bellweather on the wanted poster shows W.C. Fields in costume for his "Fatal Glass of Beer" sketch. It obviously is taken from a stage presentation of the well-tried routine, as the comedian would not film it until 1933.


August 22, 1936 -
The Looney Tunes short, Porky's Poultry Plant, directed by Frank Tahlin, and starring Porky Pig, was released on this date.



Frank Tashlin's first film as director at Warner Bros. Also the first Warner Bros. cartoon for composer Carl W. Stalling.


August 20, 1942 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Fresh Hare, directed by Friz Freleng, and starring Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, was released on this date.



The end of this cartoon, where Bugs proclaims his last wish in a chorus of I Wish I Were in Dixie, which segues into Bugs, Elmer Fudd and the Mounties all in blackface singing Camptown Races has been edited on nearly every recent American airing,


August 22, 1942 -
The Looney Tunes short, Eatin' on the Cuff or The Moth Who Came to Dinner, directed by Bob Clampett, was released on this date.



The spider seductress styles herself after popular film star Veronica Lake, who was known for her peek-a-boo bang hairstyle. This characterization might well have helped inspire the cartoon character Jessica Rabbit almost 50 years later.


August 22, 1946 -
The last of Alfred Hitchcock's wartime thrillers, Notorious, premiered on this date.



After filming had ended, Cary Grant kept the famous UNICA key. A few years later he gave the key to his great friend and co-star Ingrid Bergman, saying that the key had given him luck and hoped it would do the same for her. Many years later, at a tribute to director Alfred Hitchcock, Bergman went off-script and presented the key to him, to his surprise and delight.


August 22, 1953 -
The Looney Tunes short, Plop Goes the Weasel!, directed by Bob McKimson, and starring Foghorn Leghorn and the Barnyard Dawg., was released on this date.



This is also the first cartoon to bill Foghorn Leghorn by name in the title card.


August 22, 1970 -
Bread's single Make It With You from their album, On the Waters, went to No. 1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



When group leader David Gates returned home to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where his mother was throwing a big reception party to celebrate the return of the young chart-conquering hero, the newspaper, television and radio press turned up, hoping to play up the whole "local boy does good" PR angle. In a widely circulated interview, Mrs. Gates proudly told the world just how pleased as punch she was with her son's recent success. She then also told them - in complete candor - that she just couldn't understand why he had to call his new hit record, "Naked With You."


August 22, 1972 -
The movie that introduced Monty Python and its seminal brand of comedy to American audiences, And Now for Something Completely Different, premiered in the U.S. on this date.



This movie was filmed between the first and second seasons of Monty Python's Flying Circus. It contains several sketches that had been written for the second season, but not yet performed, including the Hungarian Phrasebook sketch.


August 22, 1981 -
Duran Duran had their breakthrough hit in Britain when their single Girls On Film, hits #5 in the UK, on this date. It does not chart on its US release, but surges in popularity after its music video goes into heavy rotation on MTV.



(Kids, ask your folks if you're allowed to watch this video)

This song is best known for its video, which was the first extended video ever made and was quite racy. Simon Le Bon has said in interviews that the controversy over the song's notoriously raunchy music video eclipsed the song's message of fashion model exploitation. The video was directed by Lol Creme and Kevin Godley, who were the leaders of the group 10cc and also recorded as Godley & Creme.


August 22, 1986 -
Rob Reiner adaptation of the novella by Stephen King, Stand By Me, starring Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, and Kiefer Sutherland premiered in US Theatres on this date.



River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Wil Wheaton and Jerry O'Connell got into a lot of mischief in the hotel they were staying in during filming. This included throwing all the poolside furniture into the pool, Wheaton fixing video games in the lobby so they could play them for free and Phoenix (spurred on by the other boys) unknowingly covering Kiefer Sutherland's car in mud, only discovering whose car it was when Sutherland confronted a scared and nervous Phoenix about it later.


August 22, 1990 -
Allan Moyle's teen comedy-drama, Pump Up the Volume, starring Christian Slater and Samantha Mathis, premiered on this date.



Allan Moyle described the movie's protagonist and central character of Mark Hunter (played by Christian Slater) as an amalgam of Lenny Bruce and Holden Caulfield.


August 22, 2020 -
Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion single WAP, goes to the top of the charts on this date. The song has the destinction of being the most sexually explicit song ever to top the Billboard Charts.



(Kids, check with your folks if you're allowed to listen to this song.)

The Colin Tilley directed video finds Cardi and Megan exploring a luxurious mansion that features some of their celebrity friends dancing behind certain doors. They are, in order of appearance, Kylie Jenner, Normani, Rosalía, Mulatto, Sukihana and Rubi Rose.

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


Today in History:
August 22, 408 -
Flavius Stilicho, West Roman field leader was executed for his failure to decisively deal with Alaric, leader of the Visigoths.

Many historians argue that the death of Stilicho was the main catalyst leading to the Vandals sack of Rome in 410.

(This may be on the test)


August 22, 565 -
St. Columba, the man credited with introducing Christianity to Scotland, reported seeing a monster in Loch Ness on this date.

St. Columba made the sign of the cross and told the monster, "you will go no further," and it fled. There was no written report on how many drams of whiskey the saint had downed before his encounter.


August 22, 1485 -
At the Battle of Bosworth, England's King Richard III was terminated for having made a fiscally irresponsible bid on a horse.



For evermore, kingdoms went for a great deal more than small pieces of hardware.


August 22, 1770 -
Captain James Cook claimed Australia for the British crown when he landed on a small island off the coast of Queensland.

This must have come as a great shock to the indigenous inhabitants there. But then again, they didn't have a flag.


August 22, 1776 -
George Washington asked the Continental Congress for permission to burn New York City, to stop the city from being used to quarter troops arriving via the British fleet. It is declined, but his soldiers set 1/4th of the town ablaze on September 21.

There are still many in the government that would like to enact Washington's plan right now.


August 22, 1849 -
In the first air raid in history, Austria launched 200 pilotless balloons (these were not those 99 luftballons Nena sang about,) each attached with 30-pound bombs, against the city of Venice on this date.

The bombs don’t cause much damage (luftballoons indeed.) These unmanned balloons were also the first drones. But on this August day, exactly a hundred years later,

Japan dedicated the town of Hiroshima as a shrine of peace after a single nuclear bomb killed 130,000 people


It's Claude Debussy's birthday (You may feel piss proud of yourself for just listening.)



You may go back about your business


August 22, 1851 -
The American schooner America was allowed, through special dispensation of Queen Victoria, to enter the annual Royal Yacht Squadron's Regatta. The America won the race, beating out 15 competitors and the trophy was renamed the America's Cup after the yacht.



The race was a 53-mile (85-kilometer) regatta at the Isle of Wight. The Cup is the oldest trophy awarded in international sports.


August 22, 1864 -
12 nations sign the first Geneva Convention specifically calling for the protection of the wounded during times of active warfare on this date. This leads directly to formation of the Red Cross.



In 1882, U.S. President Chester Arthur signed the treaty, making the U.S. the 32nd nation to do so.


August 22, 1893 -
If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.





Dorothy Parker was born in New York City, to Henry and Eliza Rothschild (... My God, no, dear! We'd never even heard of those Rothschilds ....) on this date.



Her birth was two months premature, allowing her to say that it was the last time she was early for anything. She was quoted, when discussing her early years, "All those writers who write about their childhood! Gentle God, if I wrote about mine you wouldn’t sit in the same room with me."



While she was a successful writer, she was just plain lousy at committing suicide. Dorothy Parker attempted suicide four times herself before succumbing to a heart attack in 1967.


August 22, 1902 -
Henry Martyn Leland and others formed The Cadillac Company which was created from ashes of the Henry Ford Co, on this date, after Henry Ford left the company. Ford formed the Ford Motor Co. in 1903.



But you don't care.


August 22, 1902 -
President Theodore Roosevelt became the first U.S. chief executive to ride in an automobile (a purple-lined Columbia Electric Victoria) in Hartford, Ct. on this date. The police detail covering the event rode bicycles.

I'm sure he had a bully time, but the truth is a year earlier William McKinley rode in a car, although it was the electric ambulance that took him to the hospital after he was shot.


August 22, 1906 -
The Victor Talking Machine Company of Camden, New Jersey, manufactured its first Victrola record player on this date.

The devices, including the hand cranked unit and horn cabinet would sell for $200.


August 22, 1920 -
The late great Ray Bradbury, science fiction writer whose works include The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451, was born on this date.



Though considered by many to be the greatest science-fiction writer of the of the 20th century, he suffers from a fear of flying and driving. He has never learned to drive, and did not fly in an airplane until October 1982.


August 22, 1938 -
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, one of Hollywood's most famous dancing duos, appeared on the cover of Life Magazine.

There were on the cover to promote their current film, Carefree. The film is often remembered as the film in which Astaire and Rogers shared their first long on-screen kiss.


August 22, 1939 -
The first U.S. patent (US Patent #2170531 A) was issued for a disposable whipped cream aerosol container on this date.

Julius S. Kahn's patent was titled "An Apparatus for Mixing a Liquid with a Gas" and was specifically concerned with making whipped cream, using a ordinary soda bottle.

And so Whippets were born - I've got nothing else to say.


August 22, 1962 -
A group called the OAS (Secret Army Organization in English) plotted an assassination attempt on President Charles De Gaulle, who they believed had betrayed France by giving up Algeria (in northern Africa) to Algerian nationalists.





Frederick Forsyth dramatized the events of that August in his best-selling novel The Day of the Jackal, later made into a film.


August 22, 1973 -
Henry Kissinger, German-born American bureaucrat, succeeded William Rogers as Secretary of State under President Richard Nixon, on this date.

Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize in the same year, (he's also considered a war criminal by others.) He continued in office until 1977.



(I really don't care about the man but it gave me an excuse to play a clip of Gilda Radner and John Belushi.)


August 22, 1989 -
Nolan Ryan's fifth inning strike out of Rickey Henderson, on this date, made him the first Major League Baseball pitcher to record 5,000 strikeouts.



His 5,714 career strikeouts rank first in baseball history by a significant margin.


August 22, 2007 -
The Texas Rangers routed the Baltimore Orioles 30–3 on this date. The Rangers became the first and so far only team in MLB history to score 30 runs in a single game. They scored five runs in the fourth, nine in the sixth, 10 in the eighth, and six more in the ninth.



Believe it or not, Texas was scoreless through the first three innings of the game.



And so it goes.