Let 'em soak

Today is No Dirty Dishes Day again. Some feel this day was established to have a day free of dirty dishes.

There are two options for this day: You can eat all meals out (which given the current situation, is probably not an option,) or, you can use disposable paper plates, cups and silverware. In other words, you should have gotten all the dishes done last night so that you can relax today.


May 18, 1896 -
Bram Stoker’s novel, retitled just before its release on this date, as Dracula, tells the story of the Count’s attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and his subsequent battle with a group of men and women led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing.



Over 200 films have featured Dracula in a major role, a number second only to Sherlock Holmes. Arguably the classic portrayal remains the one by Bela Lugosi in 1931.


May 15, 1940 -
The May 15, 1940 -
The Looney Tunes short, You Ought to Be in Pictures, directed by Friz Freleng, starring Porky Pig and Daffy Duck, debuted on this date.



Friz Freleng's first cartoon featuring Daffy Duck. It was a milestone in the character's development, introducing him as a vain, devious rival of the lead character (Porky Pig).


May 18, 1955 -
The classic film noir that introduced Mike Hammer to cinema, Kiss Me Deadly, opened in Los Angeles on this date.



Although Victor Saville is credited as Executive Producer and Director Robert Aldrich is credited only as Producer, in reality, Aldrich had it written into his contract that he had complete control over the picture, and it would be made the way he wanted it, specifically stipulating that his decisions could not be overruled by any studio representative.


May 18, 1968 -
Archie Bell & the Drells' single, Tighten Up hit No. #1 on the Billboard charts, on this date. It is one of the earliest funk hits in music history.



Archie Bell & The Drells were a soul group signed to Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff's record label. Gamble and Huff were prolific songwriters, but this song was written by Bell and the group's guitarist, Billy Butler.


May 18, 1975 -
Tammy Wynette's single Stand By Your Man, hits No. 1 on the Billboard Charts, on this date.



Tammy Wynette wrote this with Billy Sherrill, a producer, songwriter and record executive who signed Wynette to Epic Records after other labels rejected her.


May 18, 1976 -
Warren Zevon releases his self-titled album, produced by Jackson Browne, on this date.



Warren Zevon's eponymous second album came out six years after his first. In the years between, he took musical odd jobs like writing jingles, but he also performed and caught the attention of Jackson Browne, who helped him land a record deal. There are a lot of big names on the album; Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt, Lindsey Buckingham, Don Henley and Glenn Frey all participated.


May 18, 1978 -
The biopix about the life of Buddy Holly, The Buddy Holly Story, starring Gary Busey premiered in Lubbock Texas on this date.



According to Little Richard, the Apollo theater performance by Buddy Holly and The Crickets in front of an all black audience is pretty accurate. Buddy Holly and his band were booked into the all black hall "sight unseen" because the owner thought they were black and the audience was shocked to see white performers on stage. But as in the movie, the audience embraced Buddy Holly and his band.


May 18, 1985 -
Simple Minds song Don't You Forget About Me went to No.1 on the Billboard charts on this date.



Keith Forsey and Steve Schiff wrote this song specifically for The Breakfast Club. Forsey, who also co-wrote Shakedown for Beverly Hills Cop II and the title song to Flashdance... What a Feeling, was in charge of the music on The Breakfast Club. Schiff had been a guitarist in Nina Hagen's band and co-wrote one of her biggest songs, New York / N.Y.


May 18, 1990 -
For a reason few people really understand, CBS TV aired the TV film, Return to Green Acres, on this date.



It was reported that Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor were extremely close friends during the run of the show and the chemistry between them often showed in scenes where they were in close proximity, as one is often always touching the other. Their friendship was said to be very similar to how they played as husband and wife, and when Gabor died in 1995, Albert was extremely devastated and deeply heartbroken. After he died, he was buried only a few yards away from Gabor's resting place in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.


May 18, 1991 -
R.E.M. go to #1 in America with their seventh album, Out of Time, which features the tracks Losing My Religion and Shiny Happy People.



The positive critical reviews of the album quickly translated to sales, with Out Of Time rapidly outstripping expectations. Selling around 4.5 million copies in the US alone, the album topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic and just kept right on selling. A fixture on the US Billboard 200 for a whopping 109 weeks, it also enjoyed multi-platinum success in countries such as Australia, Germany and the Netherlands, and eventually went on to shift upwards of 18 million copies worldwide.


May 18, 1998 -
The final episode (or so we thought) of Murphy Brown, Never Can Say Goodbye, aired on CBS-TV on this date. (The re-boot of the series ran for about a year.)



One of the running series jokes was Murphy Brown's inability to get a good secretary or one that could work with her. During the show's 10-year run, Murphy had a total of 93 secretaries. (During my run as an executive at a multinational entertainment corporation that I am legally barred from mentioning it, I had a total of 17 secretaries, including one who brought her puppy to the office and hid it in her desk drawer. She kept telling me that I imagined hearing barking. When I finally found the dog while she was on her lunch break, I brought the dog to HR and had her pick it and her severance check up there.)


May 18, 2001 -
DreamWorks released the animated comedy Shrek, featuring the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz, in the US on this date.



The principal actors never met each other. They all read their parts separately, with a reader feeding them the lines. John Lithgow later admitted that, while he enjoyed playing Lord Farquaad, he was a little disappointed that he never actually worked directly with Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, or Eddie Murphy.


Word of the Day


Today in History:
On May 18, 1843, Joseph Smith made a specific prophecy -

"I prophesy in the name of the Lord God of Israel, unless the United States redress the wrongs committed upon the Saints in the state of Missouri and punish the crimes committed by her officers that in a few years the government will be utterly overthrown and wasted, and there will not be so much as a potsherd left."

Ominously, Smith's prophesy was proven true. By the Great Depression of 1888, most potsherds are only found in museums and the value of broken pottery plummets to near worthlessness.


Frank Capra was born on May 18, 1897, and Jimmy Stewart was born on May 20, 1908. Without them we would not have had such American classics as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Mr. Smith Goes Back to Washington, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Again, Mr. Smith: His Big Hands and His Even Bigger Feet, The Koch Brothers present Mr. Smith and the Tea Party, Mr. Smith is Really Very Serious about Term Limits and Mr. Smith Drops Dead in A Senate Cloakroom (astride a male intern.)



The duo also gave us It's a Wonderful Life with its own magnificent sequels: It's a Really Wonderful Life, It Just Doesn't Get Any Better Than Life and Life Is Just So Damn Good I Don't Know Whether to Take a Dump or Go Blind.


May 18, 1926 -
Aimee Semple McPherson, possibly the most famous woman in America at the time, went for a swim in the Pacific Ocean at Venice Beach and disappeared. McPherson was a hugely popular evangelist; she had a radio following of over a million, so when she disappeared, police pulled out all stops to try to find her.



She reappeared a month later, claiming to have been kidnapped, but it quickly became apparent that she had stepped out with a married engineer from her radio station, Kenneth Ormiston. The scandal rocked her ministry, and she faded out of the public eye, until she apparently 'accidentally overdosed' on Seconals in 1944.


May 18, 1927 -
Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theatre opens on Hollywood Boulevard, on this date. Hollywood’s biggest celebrities will set their signatures and handprints int he blocks of the theater’s forecourt for decades to come.



Thousands of people lined Hollywood Boulevard and a riot broke out as fans tried to catch a glimpse of the movie stars and other celebrities as they arrived for the opening. The film being premiered that night was Cecil B. DeMille’s The King of Kings, which was preceded by Glories of the Scriptures, a live prologue devised by master showman Sid Grauman.


May 18, 1936 -
Tokyo gangster Kichizo Ishida was accidentally strangled by his mistress during a session of rough sex. Ishida had been a "gasper," someone who enjoys the sexual effects of asphyxiation. The woman, Sada Abe, indulged him by wrapping her pink kimono belt around his neck. After her lover's death, Abe cuts off Ishida's penis and scrotum with a meat cleaver and carries them around until she was finally arrested, three days later.



40 years later, a taboo breaking film, In the Realm of the Senses, was released, retelling the events of this sordid tale. (Kids, make sure your mother knows you're watching this.)

Makes a great first date movie.


May 18, 1953 -
Jackie Cochran, long-time aviation fan and a close friend of pilot Chuck Yeager, became the first woman to break the sound barrier on this date.



She was also the first woman to fly a bomber plane across the Atlantic, and the first pilot in general to make a blind landing, one which relies only on instruments. Years later, on June 3, 1964, Cochran piloted an F-104G Starfighter at twice the speed of sound, establishing a woman's world speed record of 1,429 miles per hour.


May 18, 1955 -
Working in front of the camera keeps me alive. I couldn't care less about actors' trailers and food on sets and stuff like that - I just want to act.







The superstar Asian actor, Chow Yun-Fat, was born on this date.


May 18, 1969 -
NASA launched the fourth crewed mission of the Apollo, Apollo 10 spacecraft on this date.



The mission was a complete test run of the Apollo 11 mission without an actual lunar landing. The mission was also the second manned mission to orbit the Moon and the first to travel to the Moon bearing the complete Apollo configuration.


May 18, 1974 -
India became the sixth nation to explode an atomic bomb when they conducted their first nuclear test (project Smiling Buddha) in Pokhran, India on this date.



Though the yield of the device detonated at Pokhran is debated, it is believed that the actual yield was around 8-12 Kilotons of TNT. The highlight of the test was that India had managed to avoid detection by the United States and other intelligence agencies.


May 18, 1980 -
The body of Ian Curtis, lead singer of dirge band Joy Division, was discovered hanging in the kitchen by his wife on this date. Curtis killed himself on the eve of Joy Division's U.S. tour.



His surviving band mates go on to form New Order.


May 18, 1980 -
After a 5.1 magnitude earthquake in Washington state, 57 people were killed in an avalanche of volcanic mud in the eruption of Mount St. Helens.



The volcano spews out 200 million cubic yards of of pumice, ash, and debris which covers 24 square miles of the valley below.

Kids, how many time do I have to remind you - Virgins, sacrifice virgins - not any old skank.


May 18, 2011 -
Don Gorske from Wisconsin, ate his record-breaking 25,000th Big Mac on this date. The retired prison guard had been keeping track of his consumption of the McDonald's burger for thirty-nine years and keeps close track of his overall consumption. (Not to put too fine a point on this fact, he still ate almost 3 Big Macs ever day last year.)



Despite doctors not recommending this diet, Gorske maintained a healthy weight and low cholesterol, (Mr Goeske ate his 30,000th burger in 2018.) At this point, when Mr Goeske meets his maker, he will just need to be rolled next to an open flame - no burial necessary, he will go poof in the blink on an eye.


May 18, 2017 -
American musician, singer and songwriter Chris Cornell (Christopher John Boyle) died suddenly in Detroit after performing at a show with Soundgarden, on this date.





Cornell was known for his role as one of the architects of the 1990s grunge movement, and for his near four octave vocal range as well as his powerful vocal belting technique. He released four solo studio albums as well as working with Audioslave and Temple of the Dog.



And so it goes.

Today is Rubber Band Day.

The day honors Inventor Stephen Perry's receiving a patent for the rubber band on this date in 1845 (We've also seen it listed as March 17th but we can be sure, no one from ACME was there at the time.)



(The ACME Corporation is in no way endorsing the sort of behavior depicted below. But what these people do in the privacy of their own homes is their own constitutionally protected business.)



The U.S. Post Office is the largest consumer of rubber bands in the world – they order millions of pounds per year.



Here's another reason to legalize marijuana, stay with me - think of the savings if USPS switched to hemp rope (and the number of very mellow postal employees - Please hold your e-mails, I know you can't get high from smoking hemp.)


May 17, 1899 -
Thomas Alva Edison copyrighted the first western film, The Cripple Creek Bar Room, which he had shot at his Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey, on this date.



Although there was little, if any, plot to this short film (please note, the role of a barmaid was played by a man,) it was the first with a setting in the west.


May 17, 1940 -
Garson Kanin's screwball comedy, My Favorite Wife, opened on this date.



Leo McCarey was supposed to direct the film, but shortly before the filming began, he was injured in an automobile accident and had to hand over the direction to Garson Kanin. Gail Patrick has stated that the severity of McCarey's injuries had an effect on the film's cast, and they found it very difficult to enter into the spirit of the comedy with the serious hospital bulletins they were hearing.

Cary Grant and Randolph Scott, who play rivals in this film, lived together for twelve years from 1932 to 1944 (The ACME Corporation has no comment on this sort of behavior. But what these two young men did in the privacy of their own home, beach house, or bath house was their own constitutionally protected business.)


May 17, 1950 -
Nicholas Ray's excellent film noir, In a Lonely Place, starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame premiered on this date.



Gloria Grahame and husband and Director Nicholas Ray quietly separated during filming, keeping it a secret for fear that one of them would be replaced. Ray slept on the studio set, saying that he needed to work late on preparation for the remainder of the film. It worked, and nobody suspected that their marriage was on the rocks.


May 17, 1955 -
Paramount Pictures put into general release, The Country Girl, starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and William Holden, based on the Clifford Odets play, on this date.



During filming, Grace Kelly managed to have affairs with Bing Crosby, Clark Gable and William Holden, simultaneously (but we assume not on the same date.) The ACME Corporation has been legally barred from commenting on this sort of behavior. But what the future Princess of Monaco did concurrently with three other dead Hollywood stars in the privacy of their own home or hotel room was their own constitutionally protected business.


May 17, 1969 -
The fourth studio album by The Who, Tommy, a double album, is released in the US on this date.



The song, Pinball Wizard, was the last one written for the album. Pete Townshend wrote it, in part, to impress a rock critic named Nik Cohn who was a pinball fanatic. The ploy worked: Cohn gave it a glowing review.


May 17, 1980 -
Call Me by Blondie reached No. #1 on the Billboard charts on this date.



Call Me was the most successful of all Blondie singles in the USA, where it was the best-selling single of 1980.


Another album from the discount bin The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour today


Today in History:
May 17, 1444 -
Sandro Botticelli, renown Renaissance painter, best known for works such as The Birth Of Venus, was born on this date. (He didn't paint The Birth of Venus on this date, smarty pant.)



He died on this date except it was 66 years later.


May 17, 1673 -
Louis Joliet, who unwittingly loaned his name to a prison, and Jacques Marquette, who loaned his name to an excellent BBQ joint in Minneapolis, first set out to explore the source of the Mississippi, which they believed would lead them to paradise on this date. (Again, according to a very devoted reader, the headwaters of Minneapolis are as close to paradise as you could hope to be.)

Unfortunately it only took them to New Orleans, and they were out of beads.


May 17, 1792 -
24 drunken stock brokers got together outside of 68 Wall Street in New York under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street which earlier was the site of a stockade fence and signed an agreement with two provisions:

1) the brokers were to deal only with each other. Thereby eliminating the auctioneers, and
2) the commissions were to be .25%.



Thus the New York Stock Exchange was born (and none of it involved a trade war with China.)


May 17, 1866 -
Erik Alfred Leslie Satie, French composer, was born.



Satie’s music represents the first definite break with 19th-century French Romanticism; it also stands in opposition to the works of composer Claude Debussy. Feel free to drop that tidbit at your next cocktail party.


May 17, 1954 -
The U.S. Supreme Court on this date, in an unanimous decision ruled for school integration in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka.



The Brown v. Board of Education decision serves to greatly motivate the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and ultimately led to the abolishment of racial segregation in all public facilities and accommodations.


May 17, 1973 -
The US Senate began its televised hearings into the Watergate scandal and the role of President Richard Nixon played in it, on this date.



The Watergate affair was a disaster for Pres. Nixon and captivated the nation for over a year, until Nixon finally resigned to avoid being impeached.


May 17, 1974 -
During a gun battle with members of the Symbionese Liberation Army on this date, the LAPD fired tear gas into their Watts hideout. The canisters ignited a fire which soon consumed the house.



Three other SLA members, including kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst, watched the events unfold on TV in their motel room down the street from Disneyland.



Proving once again, it is the happiest place on earth.


May 17, 1992 -
The World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses on this date.



You go over there and play the accordion. I'll stay here and beat off the band.



The same day, bandleader, accordion player, and soap bubble junkie Lawrence Welk died of pneumonia in his beachfront condo in Santa Monica, California (not that there's any connection between the two events.)


May 17, 2004 -
Marcia Kadish and Tanya McCloskey were married at Cambridge City Hall in Massachusetts on this day as the first legally married same-sex couple in the US.

Over 70 other same-sex couples were married on this day as well, sparking a few protests but many more celebrations.



And so it goes.

Do people still buy these kits?

Today is National Sea Monkey Day,



(Mr. Teeny has told me countless times that it was his uncle in the video and he came to a very bitter end. Mr Teeny has retired to Palm Springs, California, we try to talk every weekend - thanks for asking.)



So go out and enjoy the day thinking about these krill-like wonders. But don't think about their creator, Harold von Braunhut and the allegations that he financially supported white-supremacist groups.


May 16, 1936 -
The Merrie Melodies short, I'd Love to Take Orders from You, directed by Tex Avery, debuted on this date.



Among the agriculturally inspired home accessories seen in the scarecrow family dwelling are a cornstalk hat rack and a pumpkin based table lamp.


May 16, 1956 -
Alfred Hitchcock's remake of his 1934 film, The Man Who Knew Too Much, starring James Stewart and Doris Day, premiered in Hollywood on this date.



Throughout the filming, Doris Day became increasingly concerned that Alfred Hitchcock paid more attention to camera set-ups, lighting, and technical matters than he did to her performance. Convinced that he was displeased with her work, she finally confronted him. His reply was, "My dear Miss Day, if you weren't giving me what I wanted, then I would have to direct you!"


May 16, 1957 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Tweety and the Beanstalk, directed by Friz Freleng, starring Sylvester and Tweety, debuted on this date.



Not only does Sylvester break the fourth wall, he refers to Tweety as a Tweety Bird.


May 16, 1966 -
The Beach Boys released their 11th studio album, Pet Sounds on this date.



It has since been recognized as one of the most influential albums in the history of popular music and is widely regarded as one of the best albums of the 1960s.



All that beautiful music and barking dogs, too.


May 16, 1977 -
The sequel to the TV movie, Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway, Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn, starring Leigh McCloskey, Eve Plumb, Juliet Mills, Jean Hagen, and Earl Holliman, premiered on NBC TV, on this date.



This was Jean Hagen's final performance.


May 16, 1980 -
One of the classics of Australian film renaissance, Breaker Morant, premiered in Australia on this date.



Incredibly, despite this film's anti-British establishment sentiments and anti-Colonialism theme, a Royal Charity Film Premiere was held on October 23, 1980 in London, England. The event was attended by Prince Charles who after-wards arranged for a Buckingham Palace screening of the film for Queen Elizabeth II.


May 16, 1983 –
The concert special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever was broadcast by NBC on this date.



Michael Jackson performed his ‘moonwalk’ dance for the first time on television.


May 16, 1984 -
Prince's single, (written at the behest of the director of the film, Purple Rain, Albert Magnoli, to cover a sequence in the film,) When Doves Cry became his first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit, on this date.



This was the second US chart-topper with a kind of bird in the title, following on the feathers of the 1975 disco hit Fly, Robin, Fly. (The novelty song Disco Duck by Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots hit #1 in 1976, but "duck" does not refer to a specific species.)


May 16, 1986 -
Paramount released the film Top Gun, on this date.



Riding on the back of this film's success, the U.S. Navy set up recruiting booths in the major cinemas to try and catch some of the adrenaline charged guys leaving the screenings. They had the highest applications rate for years as a result.


May 16, 1986 -
In one of the most notorious cheats in the history of television, Pam Ewing woke up to find her husband Bobby in the shower -- no small feat, considering he's been dead for a whole season.



In order to revivify Bobby's character, the Dallas writers resorted to dismissing the entire preceding year as nothing more than Pam's protracted dream.


May 16, 2005 -
Everyone got to love Raymond one last time when the last episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, The Finale aired on this date.



Filming of the series finale was delayed twice when Patricia Heaton and then Doris Roberts were ill and couldn't speak well on the filming days.


May 16, 2009 -
The Walt Disney/ Pixar animated film Up (with the most heartfelt sequence about life, marriage and growing old,) voiced by Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, and Jordan Nagai, premiered in Hollywood on this date.



In order to revivify Bobby's character, the Dallas writers resorted to dismissing the entire preceding year as nothing more than Pam's protracted dream.

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


Today in History:
May 16, 1763 -
James Boswell first met Samuel Johnson in Tom Davie's London bookshop on this date. Due to the lax stalking laws of the period, Mr. Boswell followed Mr. Johnson around for several decades. On May 19, 1795, Mr. Boswell died.



(This was cold comfort to Mr. Johnson, who had already been dead for some time and was probably relishing the privacy.)


May 16, 1801 –
In honor of all doctoral students -



William Seward was born on this date in New York.

An astute reader pointed out this - according to the Alaska Historical Society website, "... The original pole at Tongass was a shame pole, erected in the 1880s to ridicule Secretary of State William H. Seward for failing to repay the gifts he had received from Chief Ebbits, clan leader of the Taant’a kwáan Teikweidí and one of the most high-ranking men at Tongass Village." According to oral histories among the Taant’a kwáan Tlingit, Seward stopped at Tongass Village on a trip to Alaska in 1869 and was welcomed by Chief Ebbits with all the gravitas and gifts befitting a fellow high-ranking leader. But after several years went by and Seward “did not repay either the courtesy or the generosity of his hosts, the Seward shame pole [was erected] to remind the Tongass people of this fact.” In, 2017, a replacement shame pole was erected.


May 16, 1879 -
Wallace Wilkerson was condemned to death by firing squad in Utah, for the killing of a man in an argument about a card game. The execution did go quite as planned on this date. The 'sharp shooters' missed the 3-inch patch over the condemned man's heart.

Wilkerson fell from of his chair, writhing and screaming in pain, in front of the 20 or so horrified spectators. Four doctors rushed to Wilkerson, who was struggling and gasping on the ground. Officials were concerned at one point that they would have to shoot him again, but he was pronounced dead 27 minutes later, having bled to death.

This must have been one hell of a day.


When the first Academy Awards were handed out on May 16, 1929, movies had just begun to talk. That first ceremony took place during an Academy banquet in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. There were 270 people in attendance and guest tickets cost $5.



Though this was the first time these awards were to be given, the attendees were not anxious. Unlike the secrecy that surrounds the winners of today's ceremonies, the winners of the first Academy Award ceremony were announced three months early.


May 16, 1940 -
What always made me proud - almost blushing with pride - is that Francis Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg all told me that 'The Conformist' is their first modern influence.



Bernardo Bertolucci, film director, was born in Parma, Italy on this date.


May 16, 1942 -
Born on this date at the Sherman Boner farm, a young pig called Parker Neptune was destined for nothing more than the slaughterhouse and a rasher of bacon or two. But through several bizarre machinations, Parker became known as King Neptune and went on war bond tours, raising an astonishing $19 million dollars for the war effort.

After the war, King Neptune retired, living in a farm and enjoying himself. He died just two days shy of his 8th birthday, on May 14th 1950, from pneumonia. He was given the rare honor of a military funeral.

Raise a glass or two to this Porcine wartime benefactor.


May 16, 1945 -
A Nazi submarine surrendered to US forces at Portsmouth, NH, on this date. It had been bound for Tokyo with 10 containers of uranium oxide for the Japanese secret nuclear tests.



In a very ironic twist, the atomic material ended up in the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.


May 16, 1953 -
Jazz attracted me because in it I found a formal perfection and instrumental precision that I admire in classical music, but which popular music doesn't have.



Jean Django Reinhardt, one the the greatest jazz guitarist, died in France on this date.


May 16, 1965 -
"The neat round spaghetti you can eat with a spoon", Spaghetti-O's first went on sale, on this date.



Oh happy day, the squirrel meat brand has stuck around.


May 16, 1977 -
Five people were killed on this date, when a New York Airways helicopter, idling atop the Pan Am Building in midtown Manhattan, toppled over, sending a huge rotor blade flying.



Three men were killed instantly and another man died later in a hospital. The blade sailed over the side of the building and killed a pedestrian on the corner of Madison Avenue and 43rd Street.

That will definitely put a crimp in your day.


May 16, 1984 -
Intergender wrestling champion and conceptual comic Andy Kaufman pretended to die of lung cancer on this date. In order to make it really convincing, Andy underwent months of radiation therapy and six weeks of psychic surgery in the Philippines.



And he's never made another public appearance. You must admire someone who can stick with a joke for this long.


May 16, 1990 -
Sammy Davis, Jr. died of throat cancer in Beverly Hills on this date. After the legendary Rat pack singer/entertainer was buried with $70,000 in jewelry, the family discovers that Mr. Bojangles was broke and left millions of dollars in unpaid back taxes.



His widow then orders the body exhumed so they can repo the jewelry.

Imagine the look on Sammy's face when they opened his casket.


May 16, 1990 -
Attached to a ventilator and swimming in antibiotics, Muppet creator Jim Henson died of a severe case of pneumonia in a New York hospital on this date.



In keeping with his express wishes, no one is permitted to wear black at Henson's funeral service, which features 5,000 fans waving painted butterflies and a live band playing When the Saints Go Marching In.



And so it goes