Let get a slice for everybody

Today is National German Chocolate Cake Day but it should be known as German's Chocolate Cake Day.



(German chocolate, and German chocolate cake - actually that is incorrect, the man who developed this chocolate was Samuel German - it has nothing to do with Germany, so it should be German's Chocolate and German's Chocolate cake).

You may now continue eating your delicious piece of cake


June 11, 1937 -
The Marx Brothers film, A Day at the Races, premiered on this date.



The Grand Steeplechase sequence at the end had to be shot twice. Both times a crew member persuaded Chico Marx to gamble on it and not only to bet on the outcome of a rigged non-race, but to bet on a horse other than the one scripted to win. Chico, all his life an avid gambler, could offer as excuse only, "The odds were 20 to one."


June 11, 1938 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Katnip Kollege, directed by Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton, debuted on this date.



Cuddling and singing about romance was about as far as the censors would allow at the time, even for animated felines.


June 11, 1949 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Mouse Mazurka, directed by Friz Freleng, starring Sylvester the Cat, debuted on this date.



A made up bucolic Central-Eastern European country is shown here, as is an inference to a mad experimenting scientist (who apparently owns the very latest model of water coolers). Both were popular plot elements in films of the era.


June 11, 1955 -
The Looney Tunes short, Rabbit Rampage, directed by Chuck Jones, starring Bugs Bunny, debuted on this date.



This cartoon is a successor to Duck Amuck, with Bugs as the victim and Elmer as the animator. However, unlike Daffy in the aforementioned short, Bugs seems to know the animator's identity in this short.


June 11, 1962 -
The musical comedy/variety TV special starring Julie Andrews & Carol Burnett, Julie & Carol at Carnegie Hall, aired on CBS TV on this date.



At one point Carol Burnett "accidentally" hit's Julie Andrews' in the stomach while taking a bow (this was scripted as part of the number they had just performed). Just before the show Andrews had found out she was pregnant and she and Burnett had decided not to do the hit, but Burnett simply forgot. As soon as this happens you see Burnett break character and ask if Andrews is OK.


June 11, 1966 -
The song Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones hit No. 1 on the charts, on this date.



On this track, Stones guitarist Brian Jones played the sitar, which was introduced to pop music by The Beatles on their 1965 song Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown). Brian Jones cemented the popularity of the sitar during the 60s by balancing the instrument on his lap during The Stones appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.


June 11, 1969 -
Henry Hathaway helped John Wayne win his only Oscar in the classic western True Grit, also starring Kim Darby, Glen Campbell, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, Jeff Corey and Strother Martin. The film premiered in the US on this date.



Elvis Presley was considered for the role of La Boeuf, the Texas Ranger. However, "Colonel" Tom Parker, his manager, insisted that Presley should receive top billing. The part was given to Glen Campbell instead.


June 11, 1975 -
Robert Altman's classic Nashville, starring a very large ensemble cast, including, Ned Beatty, Karen Black, Ronee Blakley, Keith Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Shelley Duvall, Allen Garfield, Henry Gibson, Scott Glenn, Jeff Goldblum, Barbara Harris, Michael Murphy, Lily Tomlin, and Keenan Wynn, premiered in New York City, on this date.



Robert Altman originally wanted Susan Anspach to play Barbara Jean, but she refused because she wanted more money. Ready to film in Nashville with no one cast in the role, Altman at the last minute offered it to Ronee Blakley, who was working as a back-up singer in Nashville at the time and had contributed some songs to the film. Blakley ended up receiving an Academy Award nomination for her performance.


June 11, 1977 -
Electric Light Orchestra’s record Telephone Line reached #7 on the Billboard Charts in the US, giving the band its first gold single.





ELO's first manager was Don Arden. When he lost interest in the group, he gave them to his daughter Sharon who ran Jet Records. Sharon married Ozzy Osbourne a few years later.


June 11, 1978 -
Grease, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John opened, on this date.



Hopelessly Devoted to You was written and recorded after the movie had wrapped. Olivia Newton-John's contract for Grease stipulated that she should have a solo song. However, nobody had any ideas for a song for her character, Sandy, until Olivia's producer John Farrar came up with Hopelessly Devoted To You halfway through the shoot. Director Randal Kleiser wasn't wholly convinced by the song at first and had to come up with an entirely new scene to fit it in. It was eventually filmed and recorded after the movie had wrapped and it earned the film's only Oscar nomination.


June 11, 1982 -
Steven Spielberg's film, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, opened on this date.



At the auditions, Henry Thomas thought about the day his dog died to express sadness. Director Steven Spielberg cried, and offered him the role of Elliott on the spot.


June 11, 1986 -
John Hughes' comic masterpiece, Ferris Bueller's Day Off was released, on this date.



John Hughes personally designed Ferris' bedroom, mirrored mostly on his own bedroom when he was in high school. Hughes said that the room was a disorganized series of pop references and other things, because it would represent Ferris' mind.


June 11, 1993 -
Steven Spielberg's science fiction thriller, Jurassic Park, opened on this date.



The T. Rex occasionally malfunctioned, due to the rain. Producer Kathleen Kennedy recalls, "The T. Rex went into the heebie-jeebies sometimes. Scared the crap out of us. We'd be, like, eating lunch, and all of a sudden a T. Rex would come alive. At first we didn't know what was happening, and then we realized it was the rain. You'd hear people start screaming."


Another little known Monopoly card


Today in History:
June 11, 323 BCE - (Literally, the calendar makers were too busy at the orgies to correctly note the exact date.) After yet another long night of ouzo and sodomy, Alexander The Great died in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II, in Babylon, at age 32.



He was the conqueror of the known world and a king for just 12 years. And for all his troubles, he may have been buried alive. Sometimes it absolutely sucks to be the Conqueror of the Known World.


June 11, 1881 -
A phantom vessel appears in the sky to the passengers and crew of the ship the HMS Bacchante on this date, including Price Albert Victor and Prince George, both sons of the Prince of Wales.

This is what comes from too much rum, the lash and buggery.


June 11, 1889 -
The Neapolitan pizzamaker Raffaele Esposito created the Pizza Margherita on this date, to honor the Queen consort of Italy, Margherita of Savoy.



The pizza was garnished with tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil, to represent the national colors of Italy as on the Italian flag.


June 11, 1895 –
Charles Duryea, along with his brother Frank, founded the Duryea Motor Wagon Company in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1893. Charles E. Duryea was granted a US patent (#540,648) for a gasoline-driven automobile on this date.

By the end of 1896, Charles and his brother, Frank, had sold 13 cars - the first 10 of which were the first automobiles sold in America.


June 11, 1903 -
Another day, another defenstration ...

King Alexander and Queen Draga of Serbia were shot and their bodies mutilated and disemboweled during  a military coup d'état on this date (organized by Russian operatives and the Black Hand secret society which would go on to assassinate Archduck Franz Ferdinand in 1914.)



According to eyewitness accounts, the unfortunate couple were then thrown from a second floor window of the palace onto piles of garden manure. I'm going to have this embroidered on throw pillows - sometimes, it's sucks to be the king.


June 11, 1910 -
Jacques-Yves Cousteau, filmmaker, scientist and explorer was born on this date.



Among his many and varied accomplishments, he co-developed the Aqua-Lung diving apparatus. Climate Change deniers are very lucky that the Captain is no longer with us or there would be some major ass kicking going on.


June 11 is an important day for American football fans and seems almost inevitably slated to someday become a national holiday. It's the birthdays of Vince Lombardi (1913) and Joe Montana (1956). Mr Lombardi played at Fordham University and was a Latin and chemistry teacher in New Jersey before becoming the head coach of the Green Bay Packers at the age of 46. They had won only one of twelve games the season before he was hired; they won seven his first year. Over the course of his brief career, the Packers won five NFL championships and the first two Super Bowls (Super Bowl I and Super Bowl II, in that order).



Mr. Lombardi played at Fordham University and worked as a Latin and chemistry teacher in New Jersey before becoming the head coach of the Green Bay Packers at the age of 46. The Packers had won only one of twelve games the season before he was hired, but they won seven in his first year. Over the course of his brief career, the Packers won five NFL championships and the first two Super Bowls (Super Bowl I and Super Bowl II).



It was Coach Lombardi’s background in Latin that persuaded the NFL to use Roman numerals to number the Super Bowls.

“Winning isn’t everything,” Coach Lombardi famously declared, “but it’s awfully darn important in competitive endeavors.” (He was the first NFL coach to hire a publicist, and his statements were often edited for distribution to the Green Bay press corps.)



Over the course of his career, Joe Montana completed 3409 of 5391 passes and threw 273 touchdowns. In the playoffs, he completed 460 of 734 passes and threw 45 touchdowns. As a starter, he won 117 and lost 47 regular season games (for those who need to know.)

Upon his retirement, the town of Ismay, Montana, changed its name to Joe. The town of Joe, Rhode Island, attempted to change the name of its state to Montana but was prohibited from doing so by heavily-monied special interests.

Adrienne Barbeau and Gene Wilder were also born on this day—neither of whom ever won a Super Bowl.


June 11, 1939 -
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England (King Charles' grandparentsparents) were in America to visit with the President and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. As is befitting of such a grand event, the King and Queen were fed some of the gourmet foods of the United States on this date; the first time British Monarch's consumed hot dogs.



Royal physicians report that they believe Princess Margaret and the King eventually passed away after the consumption of the meal. The event is the basis of the film Hyde Park on Hudson, starring Bill Murray.


June 11, 1955 -
An Austin-Healy and Mercedes-Benz collided at the Le Mans Grand Prixon this date. The Mercedes drove into a dirt retaining wall, disintegrated, and the hood, chassis, and various auto parts sliced through the spectator crowd.



83 were killed, and 100 others were missing various "parts". They bought their tickets, they knew their chances.


June 11, 1962 -
Frank Morris, and the brothers John and Clarence Anglin became the only prisoners to successfully escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island.

The following morning the officers awoke to find dummies lying in their beds and the prisoners missing. The FBI conducted one of the largest manhunts since the Lindbergh kidnapping to no avail. Bits of the raft and life preservers were later found in the bay. Also found was a waterproof bag containing personal effects of the Anglins. Although the authorities never found any bodies, they were certain the men had drowned. They pointed out that there were no robberies or car thefts that could have been attributed to them, as well as the fact that the men were habitual criminals and yet were never arrested again.



(Perhaps they just settled down and started a new life. But that's just me thinking out loud.)

A man claims three Alcatraz prisoners ‘barely’ survived a 1962 escape — and that he’s one of them.



However it was shown on MythBusters, that the raft could have possibly landed at the Marin Headlands, raising possible doubt over Morris' and the Anglins' deaths. The film Escape from Alcatraz is based on the famous escape. Morris was played by Clint Eastwood.


June 11, 1963 -
Governor George Wallace stands in the schoolhouse door, blocking admission of two 'colored students' (Vivian Malone and James Hood) to the University of Alabama. This became known as the Stand in the Schoolhouse Door.



Wallace stood aside only after being confronted by federal marshals, Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach and the Alabama National Guard. However, there is evidence that the entire encounter was partially or wholly coordinated with the Kennedy administration to allow Wallace to save face with Alabama voters.


June 11, 1963 -
A patent for the Mercury space capsule is granted to Blanchard, Chilton, Faget, Hammack, Johnson, Kehlet, and Meyer and and assigned to NASA, (US No. 3,093,346.) The invention is described as a “manned capsule configuration capable of being launched into orbital flight and returned to the earth’s surface.” The invention is intended to provide “protection for its occupant from the deleterious effects of large pressure differentials, high temperatures, micrometerorite collisions, high level acoustical noise, and severe inertial and impact loads.”



The patent application was filed on October 6, 1959. Mercury 1 was already flown, on May 5, 1961, in a fifteen sub-orbital flight carrying Alan B. Shepard before the patent was issued.


June 11, 2002 -
File this under: Everything that your teachers told you were lies.

The U.S. Congress, on this date, recognized that Italian inventor Antonio Meucci was the actual inventor of the telephone.



Alexander Graham Bell held the patent, but Congress argued that if Meucci had the funds to pay the $10 fee to maintain the patent after 1874, Bell wouldn't have been able to secure it.

(If this gets your panties in a bunch - stop wearing panties - once again everything that your teachers told you were lies.)



And so it goes.

Down to Green Street

Today is National Black Cow Day - Everybody grab a root beer float today and run around to celebrate. Especially if you add bourbon to the drink.



According to several websites, the Black Cow was made by Frank J. Wisner, of Cripple Creek, Colo., in 1893. He was already making sodas for the people of his town, but decided to make a sweet treat for kids: root beer combined with vanilla ice cream. According to legend, he was inspired by the sight of the dark Rocky Mountains capped with white snow in the moonlight. And the rest is history. (Except, as I understand, you can substitute Coke for Root Beer and Chocolate ice cream for Vanilla, but I digress ...)



What day isn't a good day to play a Steely Dan song.


June 10, 1933 -
The charming Merrie Melodies short, I Like Mountain Music, directed by Rudolf Ising, was released on this date.



The cartoon contains caricatures of popular personalities of the period include Eddie Cantor, Will Rogers, Ed Wynn, Edward G. Robinson, George Arliss, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, and King Kong.


June 10, 1939 -
MGM released the first cartoon in the Barney Bear series, The Bear That Couldn't Sleep, on this date.



Barney Bear was a character patterned after actor Wallace Beery, a character actor known for playing gruff but lovable characters, as well as the occasional villain.


June 10, 1953 -
Arguably, one of the worse films ever (save those of auteur Ed Wood), Robot Monster was released upon an unsuspecting public, on this date.



Released to negative critical response and weak box-office, the title was quickly changed to Monster From Mars. The film, however, illustrates clearly that the monster is from the moon.



Close examination of the Ro-Man's helmet reveal it to be very similar to the helmets worn by the moon-men on the lunar surface in Republic Pictures' serial Radar Men from the Moon.


June 10, 1966 -
The Beatles song Paperback Writer was released in UK, on this date.



This claimed the top spot in the US for two non-consecutive weeks; it was interrupted for one week by Frank Sinatra's Strangers in the Night.


June 10, 1968 –
The classic romantic drama, Petulia, directed by Richard Lester and starring Julie Christie, George C. Scott, Arthur Hill, Shirley Knight, Joseph Cotten, and Richard Chamberlain, opened on this date.



The radical editing techniques employed by the film were the subject of many angry exchanges between director Richard Lester and Rudi Fehr, the Hollywood veteran who was, by then, the head of the Warner Bros. Editing Department. Lester had right of final cut in his contract, and exercised this right despite constant pressure. Later, he was very proud of having received a very detailed letter of congratulation on the editing of the film from David Lean, who, before becoming a director, had been one of the world's foremost film editors.


June 10, 1975 -
The comedy, Love and Death, directed by Woody Allen and starring Woody Allen, and Diane Keaton, opened on this date.



The movie is considered a spoof of the Russian novel, particularly the works of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, particularly The Idiot, The Gambler, War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Crime and Punishment, and The Brothers Karamazov.


June 10, 1983 -
United Artists released the 13th (or the 12th or the 14th, depending on how you count 'em) James Bond film, Octopussy, starring Roger Moore in the US on this date.



During filming, Roger Moore was misdiagnosed with heart problems. When he got home, Maud Adams had her boyfriend, who was a doctor, give him a second opinion. He pronounced him medically fit.


June 10, 1985 -
On May 23, 1985, Francis Albert Sinatra, native son of Hoboken received an honorary degree of engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology. Garry Trudeau decided to take his life into his own hands when he rudely reminded the American public that Mr. Sinatra was a friend of 'organized crime' in a Doonesbury comic strip on this date.

Over 800 newspapers decided to join him in the foolhardy enterprise and carried the panel. By the next week, lawyers representing Frank Sinatra demanded a list of the names of newspapers that published the Doonesbury cartoon strip satirizing Mr. Sinatra from the distributor of the comic so they can seek retractions.


June 10, 1989 -
De La Soul's debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising, peaks at #24 on the Billboard 200 chart.



On the same day, Me, Myself and I hits #1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.


June 10, 1991 -
The last episode of the second season of Twin Peaks: Beyond Life and Death aired on ABC TV on this date.



In the 2014 book Reflections: An Oral History of Twin Peaks by Brad Dukes, Jules Haimovitz (who was the president and COO of Spelling Entertainment while Twin Peaks was on) says that during the show's run, he got a call from the financier Carl Lindler demanding to know who killed Laura Palmer. Lindler told Haimovitz that he was asking not for himself but for then-president of the United States George Bush, who was in turn asking for Mikhail Gorbachev, then the leader of the U.S.S.R.


June 10, 1994 -
Jan de Bont's breezy summer thriller, Speed, starring Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Daniels, and Dennis Hopper, premiered in the US on this date.



The bus jump scene was done twice, as the bus landed too smoothly the first time. The bridge was actually there, but erased digitally.


June 10, 2007 -
The final episode of (what could arguably have been the greatest television series ever broadcast) The Sopranos aired on this date.



I'm not even going to comment upon what actual happened in the last few moments of the broadcast.




Coincidence or not, Italian Businessman John Gotti died on this date in 2002.

Make of it what you wish


Another episode of The ACME Little Known Animal Facts.


Today in History:
June 10 1190 -
Sometimes, it is not good to be the king ...

While en route to the Holy Land for a jolly vacation of pillaging and sodomy (The Third Crusade) with his fellow sovereigns, Richard (of the Lionheart fame) and Phillip II of France, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa drowned near Silifke Castle in the Saleph river, on this date. Accounts of the event are conflicting. He either:

a.) Drowned while crossing the river via swimming
b.) Thrown from his horse and the weight of his armor dragged him down
c.) Drowned from exhaustion (that's what comes from a day of jolly pillaging and sodomy.)

Some historians believe he may have had a heart attack which complicated matters. Some of Frederick's men put him in a barrel of vinegar to preserve his body (which apparently did not work at all.)



On of many legends that have sprung up around the king is the famous Italian Gesture. When Barbarossa was in the process of seizing Milan in 1158, his wife, the Empress Beatrice, was taken captive by the enraged Milanese and forced to ride through the city on a donkey in a humiliating manner.



Some sources of this legend indicate that Barbarossa implemented his revenge for this insult by forcing the magistrates of the city to remove a fig from the anus of a donkey using only their teeth. Another source states that Barbarossa took his wrath upon every able-bodied man in the city, and that it was not a fig they were forced to hold in their mouth, but excrement from the donkey. To add to this debasement, they were made to announce, "Ecco la fica", (meaning behold the fig), with the feces still in their mouths. It used to be said that the insulting gesture, (called fico), of holding one's fist with the thumb in between the middle and forefinger came by its origin from this event.


June 10, 1692 -
Bridget Bishop, owner of two taverns, was hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem, Massachusetts after having been convicted of "certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcraft and Sorceries" on this date.

Bishop was just the first casualty of what will come to be known as the Salem Witch Trials. (Interestingly enough, a year after her death, her husband married one of the chief witnesses against her.)


June 10, 1840 -
The premiere of 19th century's favorite show - Shoot the Queen started on this date. Today, during Victoria's first pregnancy, eighteen-year old Edward Oxford attempted to kill the Queen whilst she was riding in a carriage with Prince Albert in London. Oxford fired twice, but both bullets missed.

Many suggested that a Chartist conspiracy was behind the assassination attempt; others attributed the plot to supporters of the heir-presumptive, the King of Hanover. After his trial, Oxford was found to be "not guilty by reason of insanity". He was committed to the State Criminal Lunatic Asylum in Bethlem, Southwark, where he remained as a model patient for the next twenty-four years.


June 10, 1921 -
It's better to get out before you reach the sell-by date.



Today would have been the birthday of everyone's favorite itinerant Greek sailor Philip Mountbatten (Prince Philippos of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.)



I believe that celebrations will be muted today in some isolated jungle villages in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu, who usually celebrate the birthday of Duke of Edinburgh, who was worshipped as a god there.

It must have been nice for him to be worshipped somewhere. But it is sad to think his Grace didn't make it to his 100th birthday.


June 10, 1935 -
God, grant me the serenity ...

It's the anniversary of the establishment of A(lcoholics) A(nonymous), in Akron, Ohio. It was founded by a stockbroker named Bill Wilson and a surgeon, Bob Smith, who found that the best way to keep from drinking was to spend time with other people who were trying to keep from drinking. Between the two of them, they developed the main traditions of AA: anonymity, confession and mutual support.



Alcoholics Anonymous grew rapidly in the '40s and '50s, but Bill Wilson refused to appear on the cover of Time, wouldn't accept an honorary degree from Yale, because believed in anonymity, and he stuck with it to the end.


June 10, 1940 -
Italy entered the Second World War on the side of the Axis countries on this date. After initially advancing in British Somaliland and Egypt, the Italians were defeated in East Africa, Greece, Russia and North Africa.



For all his troubles, Benito Mussolini attempted to resign as Head Rat Bastard of Italy but Hitler thought better of it and busted him out of his retirement home (prison). He tried to feign interest in his old job as dictator but his heart just wasn't in it. The partisans of Italy tried to relieve his ennui by machine-gunning him to death, suspended upside down, and urinated on his corpse.

One again bunkie, sometimes, it is not good to be the king (or at least Head Rat Bastard)...


June 10, 1973 -
The 17-year-old grandson of J. Paul Getty was abducted in Rome on this date. When the kidnappers demand a $17 million ransom, the billionaire refuses. "I have 14 other grandchildren, and if I pay one penny now, then I will have 14 kidnapped grandchildren." After the grandson's severed ear arrives in the mail, Getty finally coughs up the money.



Even if he had to pay $17 million dollars for each of his grandchildren, it still would have left him well over $750 million dollars of his estimated $1 billion dollar fortune.

This is the kind of love you can only find in wealthy families.


June 10, 2004 -
Ray Charles Robinson known by his stage name Ray Charles, American pianist and musician who shaped the sound of rhythm and blues, died on this date.



In February 2005, Ray was awarded with the Congressional Gold Medal.



And so it goes.

Inspiring but overwhelming

Today is International Archives Day. Don't worry about how to celebrate the holiday correctly, the various Congressional, Senate and Independent committees already has all the information you might need. So you can just go about your business; They're already on the case.







Take it from your doctor and check out Archives.gov (or Archive.org); just about everything you may want, will find it's way there.


June 9, 1934 -
92 years ago today, an American legend made his first appearance on the silver screen. The Silly Symphony short The Wise Little Hen premiered; it star, resplendent in his trademark sailor jacket and cap. Since then, he has appeared in over 450 films in more than 200 languages, held lead roles in dozens of television serials and hundreds of specials, and has been featured in books and magazines in every language.



He is, of course, the world's favorite lazy, hot-headed, bare-assed mallard: Donald Fauntleroy Duck. He has done all of this without wearing pants - I know it is long past the time anyone would want to see me on the silver screen sans pants.


June 9, 1945 -
The last appearance of a 'nude' Tweety and before his famous pairing with Sylvester, A Gruesome Twosome, premiered in the US on this date.



Tweety rides on the back of a classic Vaudeville style horse in a salute to the popular radio drama The Lone Ranger.


June 9, 1946 -
The first car commercial on television for Chevrolet aired on this date. The live ad was the start of the car company's sponsorship of a series of variety shows that aired in four cities on the DuMont network.


(This is obviously not the actual commercial.)
The ad marked Chevrolet's first regular sponsorship of programs on network TV.


June 9, 1947 -
Another of Orson Welles' (The patron saint of Independent film makers) mangled studio films The Lady from Shanghai was released on this date.



Orson Welles' original rough cut of this picture ran 155 minutes (the released version ran 92 minutes). Numerous cuts made by Columbia Pictures executives included a shortening of the famous "funhouse" finale.


June 9, 1962 -
The thriller, Experiment in Terror, directed by Blake Edwards and starring Glenn Ford, Lee Remick, Stefanie Powers and Ross Martin, opened on this date.



Blake Edwards was a fan of Alfred Hitchcock as evidenced by his homage to his filmmaking such as in the telephonic terror of Dial M for Murder, the unhinged cross-dressing antagonist like in Psycho, urban backdrop like in Vertigo, and beautiful blonde in danger of Psycho and innumerable others.


June 9, 1978 -
The Rolling Stones' 14th British and 16th American studio album, Some Girls, was released on this date.



The album cover was a parody of a newspaper ad for wigs, but the women wearing the wigs were celebrities like Raquel Welch, Lucille Ball, and Farrah Fawcett. They had to remove the famous women when faced with a lawsuit.


June 9, 1989 -
William Shatner was at the helm when Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, starring all the other folks from the original TV series, premiered in the US on this date. (It has been said that this was the worst Star Trek film and 'nearly sank the franchise.')



George Takei has said that he originally turned down this film because he did not want to be directed by William Shatner, with whom he has had a longstanding feud. But Shatner convinced Takei to reprise his role. According to George Takei, despite studio pressure to complete the film on time, William Shatner maintained a creative and enthusiastic atmosphere on set. "I have enormous admiration for his ability to block that kind of pressure from seeping on to the set." Moreover, Takei acknowledged, "despite our sometimes strained personal history, I found working with Bill (Shatner) as a director to be surprisingly pleasant."


June 9, 1993 -
The Tina Turner bio-pix, What's Love Got To Do With It, starring Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne, premiered in the US on this date.



Angela Bassett lip-synched all of the songs in this movie; Tina Turner sang all the tracks herself. Bassett herself admitted that she can act and dance, but isn't much of a singer. Laurence Fishburne actually sang Ike Turner's parts.


June 9, 1997 -
The FOX series Married... with Children was abruptly cancelled and a hastily shot episode was aired, How to Marry a Moron (Part 2), (which was designated as the season finale.) Five weeks later, Chicago Shoe Exchange was aired on this date, out of production order and also widely considered the final episode.



With this episode, Ed O'Neill was the only cast member to appear in every episode of Married... with Children. Amanda Bearse does not appear in this episode.


June 9, 2007 -
Rihanna's Umbrella, with a guest verse from her label boss Jay-Z, reaches #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on this date, where it stays for seven weeks.



Jay-Z, who runs Rihanna's record label Roc-A-Fella Records, performs a somewhat gratuitous rap at the beginning of the song emphasizing his wealth and business success. His presence on the song made it much more marketable even if it didn't advance the storyline.


Today's moment of Zen.


Today in History:
June 9, 68 -
Rather than suffer a Senate-imposed death by flogging, Nero implored his secretary Epaphroditus to slit his throat. The freedman complies, giving the condemned emperor a quick death on this date, just as centurions arrive at the villa to haul him away.

As Nero's four faithful servants prepared his funeral pyre, the Emperor gasped out with his last breath: Qualis artifex Pereo, (How great an Artist dies here.) You certainly can't get help like that anymore even on Mad Men.



Administrative Professionals Day, former known as Secretaries Day, always falls on the last week of April. I believe it should occur on June 9th


June 9, 1870 -
Charles Dickens dropped dead at his chair at the dinner table in his home in London on this date. He died from a stroke, or apoplexy as it was called then. This must have put a dent in the dinner conversation at the time.



He was 58 years old. In the months before he died, he must have already suffered a stroke? He spoke in his letters of weakness and deadness on the left side and of not being able to pick up things with his left hand.



Being the ever prolific writer, Mr. Dickens still manages to write three more short stories, a humorous monograph and a recipe for rum punch while on the way to his burial.


June 9, 1891 -
He may have hair upon his chest
but, sister, so has Lassie.







One of the most sophisticated American, and Peru, Indiana's favorite son, Cole Porter, was born on this date.


June 9, 1902 -
Joe Horn and Frank Hardart open the Horn and Hardart Automat Restaurant, the first restaurant with vending machine service, at 818 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.





If you are of a certain age, you used to call them Horny and Hardon.


June 9, 1909 -
Starting out from a rainy Manhattan, New York on this date, Alice Huyler Ramsey, a 22-year-old New Jersey mother, drove with three of her girlfriends (who didn't know how to drive a car) to San Francisco, California. The trip took 59 days and when she and her companions arrived in California on August 7th, Ramsey (and her companions) became the first woman to drive across the United States.



She made the 3,800-mile journey in a Maxwell automobile. The Maxwell company was the precursor to the Chrysler Group. She was named the “Woman Motorist of the Century” by AAA in 1960. She repeated the trip another 30 times — in shorter periods of time — before her death on September 10, 1983, at the age of 96.


June 9, 1930 -
Jake Lingle, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, was shot dead gangland-style at the Illinois Central train station underpass, during rush hour. Dozens of people witness the murder, and the Leo Vincent Brothers were caught four months later after an intensive manhunt.



Lingle was allegedly killed over a $100,000 gambling debt owed to Al Capone.

Bunkies, how many times do we have to go over this - don't borrow money unless you can pay the vig?


June 9, 1946 -
Bhumibol Adulyadej (known as Rama IX ) came to the throne in Thailand, upon the death of his brother, King Ananda Mahidol, on this date in 1946. (Just don't ask who shot his brother - it's a crime. As a matter of fact, don't say anything negative about the King - it's a crime.)



King Rama IX of Thailand passed away almost five years ago, leaving the former Queen Elizabeth II of England as the longest living reigning monarch in history, at the time.


June 9, 1954 -
Have you left no sense of decency?

During Senate-Army hearings, Sen Joseph McCarthy charged that one of Joseph Welch's attorneys had ties to a Communist organization.



As an amazed television audience looked on, Welch responded with the immortal lines that ultimately ended McCarthy's career. At that point, the Senate gallery erupted in applause for the only brave soul to have finally stood up in the committee hearings against the “Red Scare” witch hunt that had paralyzed the nation’s psyche.


June 9, 1980 -
In the midst of a cocaine binge, comedian Richard Pryor attempts suicide by dousing himself with rum and setting it ablaze. The self-immolation attempt goes haywire when the flaming man leapt from his apartment window and ran down the street, screaming in agony.



Pryor barely survives the incident, and only after six weeks of intensive care and three skin graft surgeries.


June 9, 1992 -
Talk about having a lousy day...
Entertainer Ben Vereen was critically injured when he was struck by a van while walking along the Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu, California. The driver, producer/composer David Foster, was not charged.



Some hours earlier, Vereen had run into a tree while driving his own car. He blames that mishap for the later accident. He said, "I had hit my head on the steering wheel but felt fine. Later that evening as I was walking in Malibu, I had [a] stroke as a result of that accident." Vereen says he then stumbled into the roadway and was hit by the van.



And so it goes.