Try to keep it down to a dull roar

I'm sure that you thought that all the excitement of the day was because it's the anniversary of the birth of Nicolas Appert in 1752. (The year is listed in various sources as 1749, 1750 and 1752; month and day also varies in October and November). Inventor of the canning process, preserving food by sealing it in sterilized containers. He published the results of 14 years of research in 1810 and received 12,000 franc award from French government.



or the Feast day of St. John of Capistrano, patron saint of jurists,

and that all of the swallows are leaving Capistrano. But no, while you weren't looking, it's Mole Day once again. Mole Day is celebrated annually on October 23 from 6:02 AM until 6:02 PM - Mole Day commemorates Avogadro's Number (6.02 x 10^23), which is a basic measuring unit in chemistry.





Mole Day was created as a way to foster interest in chemistry. Schools throughout the United States and around the world celebrate Mole Day with various activities related to chemistry and/or moles.



Upon further thought, don't tell anybody that you celebrated this day.


Today is also TV Talk Show Host Day. We celebrate and honor all TV Talk Show hosts (while they are still on the air.)



This very special day is celebrated on the birth date of legendary night time talk show host Johnny Carson. Carson is considered the "King of Late Night Television". He hosted The Tonight Show from 1962 to 1992 for a record 29 years, 7 months, 21 days (4,531 episodes - David Letterman did a total of 6,028, counting his 1982-93 run at NBC in addition to his CBS tenure.)



While this day is celebrated on Johnny Carson's birth date, it is intended to show appreciation to all Television talk show hosts, daytime and nighttime.







Celebrate today, by staying up all day and night and watch talk shows (while it's still legal.)


October 23, 1939 -
Raoul Walsh's crime-thriller, The Roaring Twenties, starring James Cagney, Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart, and Gladys George, premiered on this date.



This marked the end of James Cagney's cycle of gangster films for Warner Bros. Cagney wanted to diversify his roles: he would not play a gangster again until White Heat, ten years later.


October 23, 1941 -
Walt Disney studios release their fourth animated film, Dumbo on this date.



The first Walt Disney movie for Sterling Holloway (the Stork) and Verna Felton (the Elephant Matriarch). Both would become regulars in Disney animated films over the next 35 years.


October 13, 1943 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Fin 'n' Catty, directed by Chuck Jones was released on this date.



When Catty's gloved hand approaches the goldfish's door, he is carrying a case labeled 'Filet Brush Man' - a take-off of the Fuller Brush Man.


October 23, 1949 -
The Looney Tunes short, A-Lad-In His Lamp, directed by Bob McKimson and starring Bugs Bunny, was released on this date.



Jim Backus' genie may well have been some inspiration for Robin Williams' comedic genie in Aladdin.


October 23, 1952 -
Limelight, directed, written, produced and starring Charlie Chaplin and Claire Bloom with appearance by Buster Keaton premiered in NYC on this date.



The Academy Award that Charles Chaplin won for composing this film's score is the only competitive Oscar he ever received; his other awards were given to him for special achievement outside of the established categories.


October 23, 1961 –
The Dion song Runaround Sue hit No. #1 on the Billboard Charts, on this date.



Two years after this song was released, Dion (DiMucci) married a woman named Sue. In an interview, Dion revealed that his wife tells people this song is about her, even though she knows it isn't. Said Dion: "She goes around telling everybody, 'Yeah, I'm Runaround Sue.' I said, 'Why do you tell people that?' She says, 'They remember me.' She said, 'If I don't tell them that, they won't remember me.'"


October 23, 1972 -
Al Green's fifth studio album, I'm Still in Love with You (on the Hi Record Label) was released on this date.



Al Green mentioned the I'm Still in Love with You album cover in his 2000 autobiography, Take Me to the River: "In my white turtleneck, white patent leather shoes with the stacked heels and just a touch of diamond and gold, I was as cool and in control as the music between that cover."


October 23, 1992 -
The first feature length debut of a Quentin Tarantino film, Reservoir Dogs and starring Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Michael Madsen, Quentin Tarantino, and Edward Bunker opened in the US on this date.



Quentin Tarantino wanted James Woods to play a role in the film, and made him five different cash offers. Woods' agent refused the offers without ever mentioning it to Woods, as the sums offered were well below Woods' usual salary. When Tarantino and Woods later met for the first time, Woods learned of the offer and was annoyed enough to get a new agent. Tarantino avoided telling Woods which role he was offered, "because the actor who played the role was magnificent anyway." It has been speculated that the role to which Tarantino was referring was Mr. Orange.


October 23, 2006 -
Ironically one of Amy Winehouse's most famous songs Rehab, from her second studio album, Back to Black, was released on this date.



On August 14, 2007, Winehouse entered The Causeway Retreat, a rehab center in Essex, England, with her new husband (and fellow addict), Blake Fielder. Addiction specialists know that admitting a couple to rehab together is a bad idea, but The Causeway was not an ethical institution: it was shut down amid a host of violations in 2010.


October 23, 2018 -
Bryan Singer's bio-pix about Freddie Mercury, Bohemian Rhapsody, starring Rami Malek, premiered in London on this date.



The Queen band-mates credited Paul Prenter (Freddie Mercury's personal assistant) with facilitating the rock star's drug use and hard-partying lifestyle. He ultimately became Mercury's self-appointed personal manager, refusing interviews and "annoying" Queen with unchecked, self-centered influence on Mercury's decision-making.


Another unimportant moment in history.


Today in History:
October 23, 42 BC -
While it is not the Ides of March - today was a very bad day for Brutus.

Marcus Junius Brutus, one of the lead assassins of Julius Casear, and his army are decisively defeated by Mark Antony and Octavian in the Second Battle of Philippe, on this date.

Brutus didn't take the loss well and committed suicide.

His last words were allegedly Yes, we must escape, but this time with our hands, not our feet. (I believe they really were, Ouch, that really hurts except in Latin, of course.)


According to James Ussher, the venerable 17th-century Archbishop of Armagh, and Dr. John Lightfoot of Cambridge, it was at exactly 9:00 a.m. on the chilly autumn morning of October 23, 4004 BC, that God created the world.



9:00 a.m. on a Tuesday — exactly? (Where didn't appear to enter into their consideration.) This strikes me as monumental. If the world was created at 9:00 a.m. Greenwich time, it would have been 5:00 a.m. Eastern time, meaning the world was technically created earlier in the Old World than it was in the New. What's worse, Hawaii, the Midway Islands, Samoa, and other points west would have been created the day before.



It's conceivable, I suppose, that Ussher and Lightfoot (which sounds like either a rock group, a law firm, or a television action series) could have been mistaken in their calculations, but if we start questioning men of God, where will it end? Sooner or later, we'll start questioning God himself, which couldn't possibly lead anywhere good. No, it's either blind obedience to God or the Hell with us all.

Just ask the Houthis.

Anyway, this would make this old Earth just 6,022 years old on October 23 (according to Pete Hegseth, JD Vance, and others).



But then again, the voice of reason keeps rearing its ugly head.


October 23, 1910 -
In Fort Wayne, Indiana, Blanche S. Scott became the first woman to undertake a solo airplane flight on this date, reaching an altitude of twelve feet.



Early in the year, Scott was the second woman, after Alice Huyler Ramsey, to drive an automobile across the United States and the first driving westwards from New York City to San Francisco, California.


October 23,1935 -
Gangsters Dutch Schultz, Abe Landau, Otto Berman and Bernard "Lulu" Rosencrantz were fatally shot at a saloon in Newark, New Jersey in what will become known as The Chophouse Massacre.



Remember kids, crime doesn't pay (except perhaps for Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.)


October 23, 1959 -
Alfred Matthew Yankovic, Grammy Award winning singer, musician, actor, satirist, parodist, songwriter, music producer, accordionist, and television producer, was born on this date.



And you just thought he was some nerdy guy who sang some funny songs.


October 23, 1987 -
United States Senate rejected the Supreme Court nomination of Robert H. Bork on a 58-to-42 vote. Ostensibly this was because he admitted to smoking marijuana as a youth, which would be the wrong reason. He should have been rejected for his dealings in the Saturday Night Massacre (with evil chin hair.)



Some have since argued that Bork was the target of a smear campaign, and they began using his last name as a verb, saying that they wanted to prevent future nominees from getting "borked." The word "bork" was added to Webster's dictionary, defined as, "[Seeking] to obstruct a political appointment or selection, also to attack a political opponent viciously." Robert Bork said, "My name became a verb, and I regard that as one form of immortality."

The chip on Mr. Bork's shoulder made the one on Clarence Thomas' very small indeed. BTW, Mr. Thomas was sworn in as a Supreme Court Justice on this date in 1991.


October 23, 1995 -
The murderer of the Pop Star singer Selena, and president of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar, was found guilty in Houston of her slaying on this date.

It helped that case tremendously that with her last breathe, Selena was able to say, "Hey, the big fat ugly embezzling head of my fan club just shot me in the back."

Very lucky break for the prosecution.


Before you go - here's a nice Halloween treat, an episode of The Addams Family -



It's a great way of reminding you that Halloween is in 8 days - Remember, every day with the day is like Halloween!



And so it goes

The Caps Lock Key Is Loud!

Today is INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK Day. It is the day that campaigns for the removal of the caps lock button from standard QWERTY keyboards (or for the moving of the button), due to people continually accidentally pressing the button when they mean to use other keys.

There’s also a tendency for people to ‘shout’ (either intentionally or accidentally) by using capital letters when typing, especially online. International Caps Lock Day was created in 2000 by Derek Arnold of Iowa.

Feel free to seek him out and blame him.


October 22, 1932 -
The Looney Tunes short, Bosko the Drawback , directed by Hugh Harmen and Rudolf Isingm and starring Bosko, was released on this date.



This is the first cartoon to use Whistle and Blow Your Blues Away as the opening song.


October 22, 1938 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Johnny Smith and Poker-Huntas, directed by Tex Avery, and starring , was released on this date.



This short hardly airs on American television due to prominent Native American stereotyping..


October 22, 1942 -
The biggest box office hit of Bette Davis' career, Now, Voyager opened in NYC on this date.



Paul Henreid's act of lighting two cigarettes at once caught the public's imagination and he couldn't go anywhere without being accosted by women begging him to light cigarettes for them.


October 22, 1948 -
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger technicolor fever dream about the world of ballet, The Red Shoes, starring Moira Shearer and Anton Walbrook, opened in New York City on this date. Little girls and boys were forever ensnared in it's magical, evil web.



Much to his surprise, Michael Powell had great difficulty persuading Moira Shearer to be in the film. She held out for a year before giving in. Shearer herself, however, did not particularly care for Powell. In later years, she described the making of the film as being a terrible ordeal. She said that Powell was distant and aloof and never really gave her much direction; further, having to dance for hours on end on concrete floors physically took a toll on all the dancers, making their legs swell.


October 22, 1949 -
The second film in director John Ford's Cavalry Trilogy, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, premiered on this date.



Although several reviewers praised John Wayne's portrayal, the general critical consensus was not in favor of his trying something new and expanding his range. Wayne recalled rather bitterly that he never got the credit he deserved for the picture, so he just went back to "re-acting" for the rest of his career.


October 22, 1955 -
Quatermass II, the sequel to The Quatermass Experiment, a British science fiction serial, premiered on BBC Television, on this date.



Reginald Tate, from the original series, was cast again as Quatermass but died shortly before filming. André Morell was offered Quatermass but was attached to another project so John Robinson was cast at the eleventh hour.


October 22, 1965 -
The Beatles recorded the song Nowhere Man for their influential album Rubber Soul on this date.



Natalie Merchant performed this at the 2001 special, Come Together: A Night For John Lennon's Words And Music. She did a mellow version, as the show was also a tribute to victims of the terrorist attacks on America.


October 22, 1965 -
The Rolling Stones released the single Get Off My Cloud on this date in the U.K.



The B-side of this single was I'm Free, which remained obscure until it was revived by The Soup Dragons in 1990.


October 22, 1966 -
The Supremes became the first female music group to attain a No. 1 selling album, The Supremes A’ Go-Go, a Motown LP, on this date.



Additional songs recorded for the album, but not included were: Tom Jones It's Not Unusual, The Miracles Mickey's Monkey, Stevie Wonder Uptight (Everything's Alright), Marvin Gaye Can I Get a Witness, Martha and the Vandellas In My Lonely Room, and The Rolling Stones (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction.


October 22, 1971 -
Peter Bogdanovich's break out film, The Last Picture Show opened on this date.



Cloris Leachman's last scene in the movie was printed on the first take without any previous rehearsals. She wanted to rehearse the scene, but director Peter Bogdanovich thought it would ruin the scene if it was rehearsed. After she completed the take, she said to him, "I can do better." He replied, "No, you can't; you just won the Oscar." Ultimately his sense of direction paid off, as Leachman won the Academy Award for her performance.


October 22, 1976 -
Bob Seger releases his ninth studio album (and his first studio album to credit the Silver Bullet Band,) Night Moves, on this date. It is his first studio album to make an impact outside of Michigan.



The phrase "night moves" has a number of meanings, which made it an intriguing song title. It could mean "putting the moves on" a girl in the back seat of a car, but Seger says it also relates to the impromptu parties he and has buddies threw in the fields of Ann Arbor, Michigan, where they would turn on the headlights and dance their "night moves." They called these gatherings "grassers."


October 22, 2012 -
Taylor Swift released her fourth album, Red on this date. The first single is the No. 1 We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, a kiss-off to an ex she refuses to name (according to my daughters, think Jake Gyllenhaal.)



The video was shot in one continuous take with no edits and features Swift in five different outfits, which required some very quick costume changes by the singer. "All modesty had to go out the window," Swift said to MTV News about her five furiously fast outfit switches. "All my clothes were put together with Velcro and snaps so that I could have three different outfits layered on top of each other."


Another little known Monopoly card


Today in History:
October 22, 1797 -
In 1785, J.P. Blanchard threw a dog wearing a rudimentary parachute out of a hot-air balloon. History does not divulge the outcome of this experiment. Mr. Blanchard may simply have been a disgruntled cat person.

There lived at that time a swindler by the name of Andre-Jacques Garnerin, who traveled around France offering (for a fee from his spectators) to ascend into the sky in a hot-air balloon and leap to the earth in a parachute. Strangely enough, his balloon never managed to get off the ground. Refunds were never offered.

One day an angry spectator brought Garnerin's con to the attention of the local authorities, who promptly arrested him. He was given a choice: he could either get his balloon to fly and make the promised jump or he could go directly to jail.

And so, one early evening 229 years ago today, Garnerin's balloon rose 3000 feet into the evening air above Paris.

Then it exploded.



Fortunately, Garnerin was already in his parachute and survived the landing. The suddenly successful showman didn't die his inevitable horrible aviation-related death for a full quarter-century later.


It was on this day in 1836 that Sam Houston was sworn in as the first president of the Republic of Texas. Texas had become an independent nation after winning its independence from Mexico, and would not be incorporated into the United States as a state until 1845.

There are some who insist to this day that Texas was never properly admitted into the Union because, like everything else, its admission had been Unconstitutional. (We will leave this conversation to Mr. Cruz.)


October 22, 1844 -
The 'Second Coming' failed to occur on this date, for the Seventh Day Adventists, led by Bible scientist William Miller. The Millerites were expecting the End Times to accompany the appearance of Jesus Christ, so that didn't happen either.



Oops, I guess Mr. Miller has some explaining to do.


The Gare Montparnasse, one of the six large terminus train stations of Paris, became famous for a derailment on October 22, 1895 of the Granville-Paris Express that overran the buffer stop. The engine careened across almost 100 ft off the station concourse, crashed through a two foot thick wall, shot across a terrace and sailed out of the station, plummeting onto the Place de Rennes more than 30 feet below, where it stood on its nose.

All on board the train survived, five sustaining injuries: two passengers, the fireman and two crew members; however, one woman on the street below was killed by falling masonry. The accident was caused by a faulty Westinghouse brake and the engine drivers who were trying to make up for lost time. The conductor incurred a 25 franc penalty and the engine driver a 50 franc penalty; he was also sent to prison for two months.



Do you think the passengers got their money back?


October 22, 1907 -
President Theodore Roosevelt visited The Hermitage, in Nashville, Tennessee, home of the late President Andrew Jackson on this date.

Years later, Maxwell House claimed that Roosevelt had praised a cup of its coffee during this visit by saying it was "good to the last drop."


October 22, 1918 -
The cities of Baltimore and Washington ran out of coffins during the Spanish Influenza epidemic on this date.

This puts much of the recent pandemic in perspective.


October 22, 1934 -
Here's another story of your tax dollars at work:

FBI agents, led by the ambitious Melvin Purvis and local Ohio authorities captured and killed Public enemy No. 1, Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd, in a shoot out on this day. Or so the official story goes. But as many of you loyal readers know the 'authorized' version and actual facts of events can differ wildly.



Chester Smith, a retired East Liverpool Police Captain, the sharpshooter who claimed that he shot Floyd first, stated in a 1979 interview, that after he had (deliberately) wounded, but not killed, Floyd.

"I knew Purvis couldn't hit him, so I dropped him with two shots from my .32 Winchester rifle."

Smith claims that he then disarmed Floyd, and that Melvin Purvis, the agent in charge, ran up and ordered: "Back away from that man. I want to talk to him." Purvis questioned him briefly and then ordered him shot at point-blank range, telling agent Herman Hollis to "Fire into him." The interviewer asked if there was a coverup by the FBI, and Smith responded: "Sure was, because they didn't want it to get out that he'd been killed that way."

This account is extremely controversial. If true, Purvis effectively executed Floyd without benefit of judge or jury.



Floyd’s body was quickly embalmed and shipped back to Oklahoma, where between twenty and forty thousand people attended his funeral - still the largest in Oklahoma’s history.


October 22, 1962 -
President John F. Kennedy appeared on television, on this date, to inform Americans of the existence of Soviet missiles in Cuba.



The President demanded their removal and announced a naval "quarantine" of Cuba. A little more than a year later, the nation was safe but the president was dead.


October 22, 2008 -
India launched the unmanned Chandrayaan-1 lunar probe on this date. It was India's first lunar exploration mission.



The mission ended early, after just 312 days, but largely succeeded in its objectives.



And so it goes

Put this on your TO DO list

Halloween is in 10 days. Although much of the world's situation is rather dire, I feel I should urge readers to begin purchasing those candies filled with poison.

(If you find yourself in a pinch though, a few Canadian pennies will do in a pinch. Loose change is at a premium nowadays.)


October 21, 1937 -
The great screwball comedy, The Awful Truth, starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, premiered on this date.



When Leo McCarey received his Best Director Oscar for the film, he reportedly said that he got it for the wrong film, a clear reference to his fondness for Make Way for Tomorrow, which he made the same year.


October 21, 1939 -
The Merrie Melodies short, The Good Egg, directed by Chuck Jones, was released on this date.



This is the first Chuck Jones-directed cartoon to feature an ACME product (in this case, an ACME Toaster).


October 21, 1942 -
The first of three movie musicals in which Judy Garland and Gene Kelly starred in, For Me and My Gal, premiered in New York City on this date.



This was the first film in which Judy Garland had her name billed before the title, which showed her growing importance and stature at MGM.


October 21, 1949 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Bye, Bye Bluebeard , directed by Arthur Davis and starring Porky Pig, was released on this date.



Among the items in the medicine cabinet are "Frizby Mixtur(e)" (after Friz Freleng), "Maltese Minestrone" (after Michael Maltese), "Ted Pierce's Medicine" (after Tedd Pierce), "Dr. Foster's Panace[a]" (after Warren Foster), "McKink's Solution" (after Robert McKimson) and "Jones Laxitive" (after Chuck Jones).


October 21, 1950 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Stooge for a Mouse, directed by Friz Freleng and starring Sylvester the Cat and Mike the Bulldog, was released on this date.



Remade in 1957 as Bugsy and Mugsy, with Bugs in the mouse's place and many of the same gags reused.


October 21, 1954 -
The episode of Climax!, an anthology series - broadcast live, on this evening was the first time James Bond (Barry Nelson) appeared on-screen in Casino Royale, and more than half a century later Bond is still making movies.



The program was thought to be lost for decades until it resurfaced in 1981 when film collector and airlines executive Jim Shoenberger discovered a 16mm kinescope print of it among some old cans of film.


October 12, 1959 -
The Looney Tunes short, What's My Lion?, directed by Bob McKimson and starring Elmer Fudd, was released on this date.



The final Elmer Fudd cartoon directed by Robert McKimson.


October 21, 1964 -
Possibly the most fully realized movie musical, My Fair Lady premiered at the Criterion Theater in New York, on this date.



When Audrey Hepburn (Eliza Doolittle) was first informed that her voice wasn't strong enough and that she would have to be dubbed, she walked out. She returned the next day and, in a typically graceful Hepburn gesture, apologized to everybody for her "wicked behavior".


October 21, 1972 -
Chuck Berry lands his only #1 hit on Billboard's Hot 100 with the single My Ding-a-Ling, on this date.



While many rock critics dismiss this song as a senseless novelty ditty, Berry is quite proud of the song. He told Rolling Stone in 2010 that he wanted to be a comedian at one point, and enjoys getting a laugh. He added that the song was originally about a ring sliding onto a finger (as a metaphor for sex), but he toned it down and recorded it as Little Girl Sing Ting-A-Ling in 1968. In 1972 he turned it into Ding-a-Ling, earning him a #1 hit and a check for $200,000.


October 21, 1975 -
Asylum Records released Tom Waits' third studio album, Nighthawks at the Diner, on this date.



The album has been generally well received by critics, and is considered by some to be the best album of his early career.


October 21, 1977 -
Meat Loaf released the landmark album Bat Out Of Hell, on this date.



The album, written by Jim Steinman and produced by Todd Rundgren, became one of the most popular albums of the '70s, eventually selling over 14 million copies in America.


October 21, 1980 -
Originally written for the Ramones, but kept for himself, Bruce Springsteen's single, Hungry Heart was released on this date. It would become Springsteen's first Top 10 hit as a performer.



When Springsteen met Joey Ramone in Asbury Park, New Jersey, Ramone asked Bruce to write a song for his band, The Ramones. Springsteen wrote Hungry Heart that night but decided to keep it on the advice of his producer and manager, Jon Landau.


Another episode of ACME's Little Known Animal Facts.


Today in History:
October 21, 1805 -
The Battle of Trafalgar was a historic sea battle fought on this date, between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy - the battle, it self, was the most decisive British victory of the Napoleonic Wars and was a pivotal naval battle of the 19th century.



Admiral Lord Nelson was mortally wounded during the battle, becoming and remaining Britain's greatest naval war hero.



Nelson's body was placed in cask of brandy, mixed with camphor and myrrh, and returned to England for a spectacular funeral. An enduring rumor has evolved that the sailors aboard ship kept taking a sip from Nelson's liquory tomb hence the phrase 'Nelson's blood' came into use for rum.


October 21, 1837 -
It's another banner day for the relations between the United States and the Native American tribes. During the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), under a flag of truce during peace talks, U.S. troops under Gen. Thomas S. Jesup violated a truce and captured Indian Seminole Chief Osceola in Florida and sent him and several other leaders to prison, where the chief later died of malaria.

Osceola's capture by deceit caused a national uproar. General Jesup and the administration were condemned.

Makes you proud to be an American.


October 21, 1869 -
The first shipment of fresh oysters came West overland from Baltimore via refrigerated train cars on this date.

Fresh cases of E-coli poisoning, Salmonella and Hepatitis A were soon on the menu across the US.


October 21, 1879 -
Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Alva Edison demonstrated the incandescent electric lamp on this date (or some other date, as previously mentioned.)



That invention was the fruit of study, hard work (of people other that Edison,) and years of persistent experimentation (of people other than Edison,) rendering it entirely inappropriate for discussion here.

More worthy of our attention is Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel Prize, born on this date in 1833.

Mr Nobel is interesting because his fortune was founded in large part on the commercial success of something he invented in 1866: Dynamite.



Dynamite proved so lucrative for Mr Nobel that he was able to spend most of the rest of his life blowing things up in the interests of world peace. World peace was not achieved in his lifetime, however, so he endowed a foundation with millions of dollars to give prizes to the men and women of future generations who helped bring the world closer to peace by blowing things up.


In 1943, Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya, the maître d' of the Victory Club in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, prepared the first plate of crunchy, spicy nachos for Texas women who were on a shopping trip.



To honor his ingenious creation, we celebrate by eating his delicious gut busting cheesy dish on this date.


There were days I could barely struggle into a size 46 or 48, months of larges and XXLs, and endless rounds of leggings with the elastic at the waist stretched to its limit and beyond - topped with the fashion equivalent of a tea cozy. And always black, because I was in mourning for my slimmer self.

Carrie Fisher, actress and writer was born on this date. You can't say anything bad or funny about her that she hasn't already said better herself.


October 21, 1959 -
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opened in New York City on this date.



The structure faced harsh criticism when it opened in 1959. One critic dismissed it as "a war between architecture and painting, in which both come out badly maimed." Another called it "an indigestible hot cross bun." NYC Parks Commissioner Robert Moses snapped that it looked like "an inverted oatmeal dish."


October 21, 1973 -
John Paul Getty III's ear was cut off by his kidnappers and sent to a newspaper in Rome; It doesn't arrive until November 8.

So much for the Italians getting the trains to run on time.


October 21, 1992 -
A day after her Erotica album was released, Madonna's erotic-book Sex went on sale in the nation's bookstores on this date. Everything about it is shocking: the $50 price, the Mylar wrapping, the metal covers, and especially the images inside.



Shirley Booth, 94, Emmy, Oscar and Tony award winning actress accidentally flipped through the book and promptly dropped dead on this date as well.


October 21, 2015 -
Today is the day that Dr Emmett Brown takes Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer to the future to prevent their kids from "ruining their lives", back to the future



Trivia like this can be exciting but let's all calm down. (Wow, I'm so old.)



And so it goes