Hosanna in the highest!

Happy Palm Sunday

The name Palm Sunday comes from the tradition for worshippers being given palm fronds which they use to participate in the reenactment of Christ's arrival in Jerusalem.



Once again, Our sponsor ACME will quote the great theologian, my mother:

"I swear to God if you kids don't cut that shit out, I will beat your asses all the way home with those palms, in front of all your friends. I don't care how embarrassed you are."

St. Monica of Hippo has nothing on the good doctor's mom.


Did you know that bananas are radioactive. Due to being rich in potassium, every banana is actually slightly radioactive thanks to containing the natural isotope potassium-40. Interestingly, your body contains around 16mg of potassium-40, meaning you’re around 280 times more radioactive than a banana already.



Any excess potassium-40 you gain from a banana is excreted out within a few hours.


March 29, 1959 -
Billy Wilder's film, Some Like It Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, premiered on this date.



When Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon first put on the female make-up and costumes, they walked around the Goldwyn Studios lot to see if they could "pass" as women. Then they tried using mirrors in public ladies rooms to fix their makeup, and when none of the women using it complained, they knew they could be convincing as women. There is a scene on the train recreating this moment.


March 29, 1969 -
Blood, Sweat & Tears' second, eponymous album went to the No. 1 position on the Billboard Charts on this date.



Blood, Sweat & Tears was formed in 1967 by Al Kooper after leaving the group Blues Project. Four of their eight members played horns, which defined their sound. Their 1968 album Child Is Father to the Man managed just modest sales, and Kooper left soon after. He was replaced by David Clayton-Thomas, who brought the song Spinning Wheel to the group and became their lead vocalist. With Clayton-Thomas up front, Blood, Sweat & Tears became one of the biggest acts of the late '60s and early '70s, with Spinning Wheel their calling card.


March 29, 1974 -
The third adaptation of the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, The Great Gatsby, directed by Jack Clayton (from a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola) and starring Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Sam Waterston, Bruce Dern, Karen Black, and Lois Chiles, premiered on this date.



Robert Towne refused a chance to write the screenplay, despite a $175,000 salary, saying: "I didn't want to be the unknown Hollywood screenwriter who fucked up a literary classic." Instead, he wrote Chinatown (1974), which earned him an Academy Award and established him as one of the greatest screenwriters of the period.


March 29, 1974 -
The swashbuckling film, The Three Musketeers, directed by Richard Lester, and starring Michael York, Oliver Reed, Frank Finlay, Richard Chamberlain, Raquel Welch, Geraldine Chaplin, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Charlton Heston, Faye Dunaway, Christopher Lee, Simon Ward, Georges Wilson and Spike Milligan, made its U.S. debut on this date.



As a result of producers Alexander Salkind, Ilya Salkind and Michael Salkind splitting this movie into two parts, the Screen Actors' Guild contracts now often feature what is called a "Salkind Clause", which requires producers to state upfront how many movies are being shot, and that the actors and actresses involved must be paid for each. The latter clause applies even, or even especially, when producers make that decision during or after production.


March 29, 1975 -
Labelle's song Lady Marmalade (psst, it's about New Orleans prostitutes) hit no. #1 on this date. (Please clear a space around your desk, while watching this clip; you will immediately feel the need to shake your groove thing and might injury yourself otherwise.)



The chorus of "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir" is French for "Do you want to sleep with me tonight?" When Labelle performed this on television, broadcast standards of the day prohibited them from singing the chorus as written. It was changed to "Voulez-vous danser avec moi ce soir" (do you want to dance with me).


March 29, 1978 -
After 11 seasons, CBS aired the last episode of The Carol Burnett Show on this date. The show won 25 Emmy Awards during it's run.



The Carol Burnett Show was one of the longest-running variety shows in television history; its conclusion marked the closing of another chapter in television as Burnett was the last of the great comedic talents heading a variety show, and hers was the last offering live entertainment before an audience.


March 29, 1979 –
The group, Supertramp release their sixth album Breakfast in America on this date, which goes on to sell six million copies in the U.S. and win two Grammy Awards.



Like the Lennon/McCartney partnership, most of Supertramp's songs are credited to their lead singers Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies, although in many cases one writer was entirely responsible for the song.


March 29, 1980 -
Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon album spent its 303rd week on the US album chart, beating the record set by Carole King's 1971 No.1 album Tapestry, on this date. The album remained in the US Billboard charts for 741 discontinuous weeks from 1973 to 1988, longer than any other album in chart history.



After moving to the Billboard Top Pop Catalog Chart, the album notched up a further 759 weeks, and had reached a total of over 1,500 weeks on the combined charts by May 2006.


March 29, 1985 -
Madonna barely beat out Ellen Barkin and Jennifer Jason Leigh, for the title role in Susan Seidelman's comedy, Desperately Seeking Susan, starring (besides Madonna,) Rosanna Arquette, John Turturro, Laurie Metcalf, Aidan Quinn and Steven Wright, which premiered on this date.



One of the iconic jackets that Madonna and Rosanna Arquette wore in the film was sold at a Hollywood auction in November, 2014 for approximately $225,000. One of the earrings worn by them fetched $34,000.


March 29, 2007 -
Rihanna released her hit, Umbrella, in the US, on this date.



This was written by Terius "The-Dream" Nash, who helped write Me Against The Music for Britney Spears as well as several songs for B2K and Nivea. Jay-Z also got a songwriting credit on this.


Another album from the discount bin at The ACME Record Shoppe


Today in History:
March 29, 1876 -
One of Lewis Carroll's last works, The Hunting of the Snark, was published on this date.



Carroll’s poem has been variously interpreted as an allegory for tuberculosis, a mockery of a notorious Victorian court case, a satire of the controversies between religion and science, the repression of Carroll’s sexuality, and an anti-vivisection tract. Wow, that's a lot to pack into one little nonsense poem.


March 29, 1891 -
Georges Seurat died on this date. Mr. Seurat was a dotty artist who painted the world as he saw it.



Sadly, his eye condition was never treated.


March 29, 1932 -
A vaudeville comedian made his radio debut as a guest on the Ed Sullivan Show, saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is Jack Benny talking. There will be a slight pause while you say, 'Who cares?' "

The eternally 39 year old Benjamin Kubelsky premiered on his weekly radio show on May 2nd, which ran from 1932 to 1948 on NBC and from 1948 to 1955 on CBS, and was consistently among the most highly rated programs during most of that run.


March 29, 1943 -
Life took over 4 billion years to evolve into you, and you've about 70 more years to enjoy it. Don't just pursue happiness, catch it..



Eric Idle, comedian and composer, made his first public appearance at Harton Hospital, South Shields, England on this date.


March 29, 1951 -
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were both convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage on this date. While Julius probably pass along secrets to the Soviets, recently declassified documents show that none of them lead to the development of the Russian nuclear weapons.



Ethel, unfortunately, is another matter. The same declassified document show that the government never believed that Ethel had anything to do with the case and the prosecution led by the lovely Roy Cohn wanted to use her as a 'lever' to pressure Julius into giving up the names of others who were involved.



She was mainly convicted on the testimony of her brother David Greenglass, a co-defendant in their trial. Greenglass was spared execution in exchange for his testimony. In late 2001, Greenglass recanted all of his testimony against his sister and claimed that he had committed perjury when he testified about her involvement in the case. Greenglass said he chose to falsely testify against his sister in order to protect his wife, who in fact was spying for the Russian.

Isn't sibling love grand?


March 29, 1974 -
A group of farmers - Yang Zhifa, his five brothers, and his neighbor Wang Puzhi - in Lintong County, Shaanxi Province, were digging in the countryside when they struck upon the Mausoleum of the First Emperor: containing the famed Terracotta Army, on this date.



Totally unique in world culture, 8,000 painted figures, 170 chariots, and 520 horses guard the slumbering emperor for eternity, and the necropolis in which the emperor rests has never been opened.


March 29, 1977 -
Lee Harvey Oswald's best friend, and coincidentally a friend of both Jackie Kennedy and George HW Bush, Dallas socialite George de Mohrenschildt died from a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the mouth, on this date.



It is likely he was going to be called to testify before the House Select Committee on Assassinations.


March 29, 1979 -
A U.S. House of Representatives committee report finds that John F. Kennedy's assassination was the result of a conspiracy.

D'uh


March 29, 1985 -
Jeanine Deckers, The Singing (and not the Flying,) Nun, committed suicide via sleeping pills at 52 as part of a suicide pact with a friend.



She cited financial troubles in her suicide note unaware that she would be awarded a $300,000 check for royalties on her hit single Dominique that same day.

Oops, talk about bad timing.


March 29, 1992 -
Arkansas Governor and Presidential candidate Bill Clinton told the New York Times on this date: "When I was in England, I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn't like it. I didn't inhale, and never tried it again."



Strangely, the POTUS and Monica Lewinsky had an 'encounter' on this date in 1997. It would be their final 'liaison'.

But remember, he did not have sexual relations with that woman.



And so it goes.

Melting stress away, one bubble at a time

Hot Tub Day is an annual “holiday” that serves as a reminder to relax and unwind after a hard day’s work.





Or you could just listen to James Brown.


Today is Earth Hour, a global event (organized by World Wildlife Fund) held usually on the last Saturday of March (this year it's the fourth Saturday in March.) Earth Hour is celebrated annually by asking households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and other electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change.



Earth Hour 2026 will be held from 8:30 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. EDT. WWF is sponsoring in-person events, (Check out the linked website.)


Happy National Weed Appreciation Day. National Weed Appreciation Day was established to remind people that a weed is simply a plant growing where you don't want it to grow. A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation—"a plant in the wrong place." Common examples include plants unwanted in human-controlled environments such as farm fields, gardens, lawns, and parks. However, some weeds can be beneficial to both us and our ecosystem. (No really, I'm not joking.)





That’s basically the details of what makes a weed a weed, and there are hundreds of ‘weeds’ that are incredibly important in health, science, and culinary uses. Stop laughing.


March 28, 1935 -
Leni Riefenstahl's influential Nazi Propaganda film Triumph of the Will premiered in Germany on this date.





Leni Riefenstahl had been given carte blanche by Adolf Hitler in the making of the film: effectively, the party rally was the first produced-for-camera event.


March 28, 1941 -
Universal Pictures released the B movie, Man Made Monster starring Lionel Atwell and Lon Chaney, Jr. on this date.



Budgeted at a mere $86,000 on a 3-week shooting schedule. It was the cheapest feature film produced by Universal in 1941.


March 28, 1942 -
Another fine Looney Tunes cartoon, The Wabbit Who Came to Supper, was released on this date.



As Bugs steps out of the bathtub and readjusts his towel (at appx 3:00 in), the white tub in the gap between his legs creates the illusion that he is exposing himself.

Try not to go back and look.


March 28, 1963 -
Alfred Hitchcock's follow-up to Psycho, The Birds, starring Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedron premiered in New York on this date.



When audiences left the film's UK premiere at the Odeon, Leicester Square, London, they were greeted by the sound of screeching and flapping birds from loudspeakers hidden in the trees to scare them further.


March 28, 1967 -
NBC broke new ground in television programming by using a world-premiere, feature length movie as the preview of a potential new television series called Ironside, on this date.



I've often wondered what the line item budget was for nipple rouge on this film?


March 28, 1974 -
Writer and comedian, Pat McCormick, carrying a cocktail streaked nude across the set of The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson, forcing NBC censors to black out the lower half of the screen.



the streaker was arrested and later released, said Carson, for "lack of evidence."


March 28, 1975 -
The final episode of the short-lived series Kolchak - The Night Stalker, The Sentry, starring Darren McGaven, aired on ABC TV, on this date.



Kolchak is smuggled into the Merrymount Archive storage facility in a large wooden crate stamped 'FRAGILE' in capital letters. In A Christmas Story, also starring Darren McGavin, his 'major award'- the leg lamp- comes delivered to his house in a large wooden crate also stamped 'FRAGILE' in large capital letters.


March 28, 1981 –
Blondie's venture into rap, the song Rapture hit no. #1 on the Billboard charts, on this date.



Harry's rap is so goofy that it sounds like she could be mocking the genre, but this was very early in the evolution of hip-hop, and many of the rhymes that came out of the New York block parties were just as silly. Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie championed rap and got involved in the community, often attending these block parties - they even took Nile Rodgers to one, which is where he learned that his song Good Times was a DJ favorite.


March 28, 1999 -
We get to find out how Philip J Fry came to work for his great (×30) grandnephew and great (×31) grandson, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth when Futurama premiered on the Fox Network.



According to Matt Groening, viewers were able to decipher the alien language that is sometimes seen in the background the same night as the pilot episode aired. The only primer for the code in that episode was a sign that read "Drink Slurm". The sign appeared once with the word "Drink" written in the alien code and once in plain English. This resulted in the producers creating a second, more complex alien code to be seen in the background of later episodes.

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


Today in History:
March 28, 4 BCE -
According to Des Pascha Comutus, a treatise written in 243 CE (because you know, I sit around and read old Latin treatises all the time,) Jesus Christ's birthday was March 28. It later became the familiar December 25 after the Catholic Church changed it in 336 AD.



So, Merry Christmas everybody.


March 28, 37 -
Caligula took a break from the close relationship he had with his sisters and the unnatural congress he engaged in with his horse, to accepts the titles of the Principate awarded by the Senate and entered Rome triumphantly as Emperor.



Unlike his predecessors, Caligula was the first of the men who would serve as full-fledged emperors, with unlimited power. And luckily for the Roman empire, he was cruel, probably insane and a sexual deviant.



The weekends must have been a blast at the Palace.


March 28, 193 -
The Roman ruler Pertinax was at his palace when a contingent of some three hundred soldiers rushed the gates. Pertinax was somewhat distracted. Ancient sources suggest that the soldiers had received only half their promised donativum (pay or bribe money not to kill him). Pertinax had only been emperor for 86 days and didn't have enough time to sell off the previous Emperor Commodus' property (including the concubines and youths Commodus kept for his sexual pleasures) in the giant fire sale he was having.

Neither the guards on duty nor the palace officials chose to resist them. Pertinax, although advised to flee, attempted to reason with them (never try to reason with unpaid Roman soldiers on a rampage), and was almost successful before being struck down by a member of the Praetorian Guard. There being no obvious successor and no Senatorial volunteers, the Guard auctions off the emperorship. The high bidder was Senator Didius Julianus, for 300 million sesterces. After hearing of this, Roman general Septimus Severus in Dalmatia marched on Rome, beheading the new emperor upon arrival.



Both of the films, The Fall of the Roman Empire and Gladiator, take the same historical event as a starting point.


March 28, 1515 -
... From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us!

Teresa of Avila (Teresa de Jesus), Spanish Carmelite nun, mystic writer and one of my favorite saints (remember, she's the one who was repeated pierced with God's 'golden shaft' of light) was born on this date. She co-founded with John of the Cross, the Order of Discalced (barefoot) Carmelites.


March 28, 1921 -
Dirk Bogarde (Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde), actor and the epitome of coolness, was born on this date.



Going to the wrong room for a British Broadcasting Corporation audition, the young Bogarde accidentally got a part in a stage play that proved so successful he was hailed as a star overnight.


March 28, 1930 -
Istanbul was Constantinople
Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That's nobody's business but the Turks.





(I can't help myself - I just love this song) Constantinople and Angora change their names to Istanbul and Ankara on this date.


March 28, 1941 -
Virginia Woolf drowned herself by weighing her pockets with stones and walking into the River Ouse near her home because she had a dream that Nicole Kidman would portray her in a film with a truly horrifying fake nose, on this date.



Lesser writers would have done the same.


March 28, 1964 -
The first pirate radio station began to broadcast off the coast of England on this date. Radio Caroline debuted with a combination of rock music and lively disk jockey who's patter played to a huge audience in Great Britain.



British authorities, tried unsuccessfully, to shut down the radio station ship. Radio Caroline had become competition to the staid and usually dull British Broadcasting Corporation.


March 28, 1979 -
The Unit 2 nuclear power plant (a pressurized water reactor manufactured by Babcock and Wilcox) on the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg suffered a partial core meltdown on this date.



The Three Mile Island accident was the worst accident in American commercial nuclear power generating history, even though it led to no deaths or injuries to plant workers or members of the nearby community.



And so it goes.

Too much good whiskey is barely enough

As you know, I'm an inveterate Gin man, through and through but I would have a difficult time deciding whether or not to celebrate International Whisk(e)y Day today or World Whisky Day which is celebrated on May 16th, the third Wednesday in May, this year.



International Whisk(e)y Day uses the parenthesis to indicate support of Scottish, Canadian, and Japanese whiskies (no e) as well as Irish and American whiskeys (with an e). World Whisky Day takes place on the third Saturday in May each year.


March 27, 1952 -
Singin' in the Rain, the apex of movie musicals, premiered in New York on this date.



Gene Kelly was a taskmaster with Debbie Reynolds, who had never danced to this degree before rehearsals started. Fred Astaire, who was in an adjacent dance studio, found her crying under a piano and reassured her that all of her hard work was worth the effort.


March 27, 1965 -
The day after Diana Ross' 21st birthday, the Supremes song Stop! In the Name of Love became their fourth consecutive No. 1 hit on the Billboard charts on this date.



This was written by the Motown songwriting team Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier and Brian Holland (Holland/Dozier/Holland). Dozier got the idea for the title after an argument with his girlfriend (she caught him cheating).


March 27, 1967 –
A new British act first appeared on the radio when The Who debuted with their first single I Can’t Explain, on this date.



Pete Townshend wrote this song when he was 18 years old. He described it as being about a guy who "can't tell his girlfriend he loves her because he's taken too many Dexedrine tablets."

Ah, young love!


March 27, 1973 -
Marlon Brando declined the Academy Award for Best Actor for his career-reviving performance in The Godfather on this date. The Native American actress Sacheen Littlefeather attended the ceremony in Brando's place, stating that the actor "very regretfully" could not accept the award, as he was protesting Hollywood's portrayal of Native Americans in film.



Brando was the second actor to ever turn down the Oscar, the first being George C. Scott, who declined his Best Actor Oscar for his role in Patton.


March 27, 1981 -
Michael Mann's first theatrical film, Thief, starring James Caan and Tuesday Weld, premiered on this date.



James Caan made sure to speak slowly and clearly and tried to avoid using contractions in his words. He decided that Frank would do this so he would save time by never having to repeat himself.


March 27, 1987 -
U2 played a rooftop concert in Los Angeles to film their video for Where The Streets Have No Name, on this date.



In 1985, Bono visited Ethiopia after performing at Live Aid. Many assumed this song is about that trip, since the streets there really don't have names, just numbers. The song is actually about Ireland. In Ireland (and Northern Ireland), many cities are divided: rich/poor, Catholic/Protestant, etc. By knowing which street a person lives on you can tell their religion, wealth and beliefs: it's where the streets have no name.


March 27, 1989 –
Simply Red released their remake of the great song by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, If You Don’t Know Me By Now, on this date.



The song was written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, who were architects of the Philadelphia Soul sound. They credit their marital problems with allowing them to write such a heart-rending song.


March 27, 1992 -
Ron Shelton's sleeper hit, White Men Can't Jump starring Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson, and Rosie Perez premiered on this date.



Writer and director Ron Shelton wrote the first thirty-seven pages in one night until things came to a complete halt. "It was written very fast, " he explains. "I was trying to figure out what Gloria's thing was. It had to be so unconnected from the guys. Because that's big for me, to make sure that the women aren't defined in terms of the guy business." After he heard someone discussing a friend's aspiration to get on Jeopardy!, the final piece was in place. "There's no logic to it -- it's sort of the Hollywood dream."


March 27, 1994 –
The CBS TV movie The Corpse Had a Familiar Face starring, Elizabeth Montgomery, Dennis Farina, Yaphet Kotto, and Audra Lindley, first aired on this date.



The film is based on the Pulitzer Prize winner Edna Buchanan's career at The Miami Herald.


Another unimportant moment in history


Today in History:
March 27, 30 -



A small time official in a backwater province of the Roman empire gains immortality for practicing good hygiene.



Pontius Pilate washed his hands and sealed the fate of Jesus.


March 27, 1790 -
Englishman Harvey Kennedy officially patented the shoestring on this date.

Kennedy was not the first to invent shoelaces; however, his version of the shoestring included the aglet, a metal or plastic sheath that protects the ends of the laces. The aglet prevents the shoestrings from unraveling, making the process of threading the laces through the eyelets much easier. Needless to say, shoelaces with aglets were a hit.


March 27, 1866 -
The patent for a urinal (US Patent No. #53,488) was granted to Dr. Andrew Rankin, on this date.

Men everywhere stand up and cheer.


March 27, 1912 -
Washington DC is in the middle of it's annual celebration of National Cherry Blossom Festival (forget about people practicing some sort of social distancing,) commemorating the gift of Japanese cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo City to the city of Washington on this date.

The gift of 3,020 trees to the United States government were planted along Washington's Potomac River.

In a ceremony on this date, First Lady Helen Herron Taft and the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted two Yoshina cherry trees on the northern bank of the Potomac Tidal Basin, near the Jefferson Memorial.



The gift nearly set off an international incident when the first set of trees sent by the Japanese government, in 1910, were discovered to be infested with harmful insects and disease. All of the trees had to be destroyed. After much apologizing on both sides, the Japanese government sent the new gift of the current trees. The seawall surrounding the tidal basin needs to be repaired and at least 150 of the trees will have to be removed to complete the restoration. New trees will be replanted once the repairs are completed in 2027.


March 27, 1945 -
Don't cry for me Argentina.



Argentina declared war on Nazi Germany, a tad late in the game, on this date. Of course, this was just a silly charade for the benefit of the world community. Argentina would be a quiet ally of Germany for the duration of the war, even welcoming many Nazi and SS leaders to emigrate there in the aftermath.


March 27, 1958 -
Nikita Khrushchev assumed control of the Soviet Union when he took over as premier (Evil Bastard, new style) of the country, five years after the death of Joseph Stalin on this date. Unlike most of the early Soviet leaders, who were all members of the Russian middle class, Khrushchev actually came from the working class (a very polite way of saying, he was as poor as dirt). His father was a coal miner, and his grandfather had been a serf. Khrushchev worked his way up through the ranks of the party until he became a close ally of Joseph Stalin, and during the mass executions of 1930s, when Stalin purged the party of all his suspected political enemies, Khrushchev was one of only three provincial secretaries to survive.

So upon Stalin's death in 1953, when Khrushchev began to work behind the scenes to take control of the party, there was no reason to believe he wouldn't just continue Stalin's reign of terror. But instead, on February 25, 1956, Khrushchev gave a four-hour speech to the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party, viciously attacking Stalin's legacy and abuses of power, detailing all the innocent people Stalin had imprisoned, tortured, and murdered during his reign. The night Khrushchev gave the speech, no one knew exactly what he was planning to say. Witnesses said later that some members of the audience fainted from the shock of hearing Stalin criticized. Several audience members committed suicide a few days later. Many went insane having to endure a four hour speech by a semi literate politburo member.



The speech was never officially announced to the public (for fear of the mass suicides - think Monty Python's WWII 'funny' joke), and Khrushchev never admitted to having made it, but word of the speech immediately began to leak out to intellectual circles and the foreign press. It was a bombshell, and it helped bolster Khrushchev's power at home and abroad. He became the premier two years later, on this day in 1958.


March 27, 1963 -
It's the birthday of the noted filmmaker, crack addict and foot fetisher Quentin Tarantino, born in Knoxville, Tennessee on this date. He was diagnosed as hyperactive as a kid, and didn't get along with his classmates or his teachers. His parents had to tie a pork chop around his neck to get the dog to play with him. The only things that calmed him down were comic books, movies and continually swallowing wristwatches. From the time when he was a toddler, his mother let him watch whatever movies he wanted. He watched everything from kung fu movies to French art house films (perhaps a little too much kung fu movies, some might argue).



He started taking acting classes (obviously failing those courses), and in his spare time he rewrote screenplays of movies he'd already seen from memory. Instead of going to film school, he got a job at video rental store that had one of the largest video collections in Southern California. Several other aspiring filmmakers worked there, and they would watch movies all day at work, discussing camera angles and dialogue. He spent five years working at the video store, writing screenplays, but he wasn't getting anywhere in his career.



He finally got a break when he met an actor who knew another actor who knew Harvey Keitel, and Keitel agreed to look at one of Tarantino's scripts. Keitel was impressed enough to volunteer to help Tarantino produce the film, and to act in it himself. The result was Reservoir Dogs, which made Tarantino internationally famous. His next film, Pulp Fiction, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994, and it went on to win an Academy Award for best screenplay.

Beside having won another Academy Award for screenwriting in 2013, and toe sucking, these days, Tarantino has scrapped what he referred to as his 'final film', The Movie Critic. We'll see what his next film will be and whether or not it's his 'final film'.

So by all means, please slap his mother or father if you come across them today and blame them for the state of today's cinema.


March 27, 1964 -
On Good Friday at 5:36 pm, Valdez, Alaska, in Prince William Sound was rocked by an 9.2 earthquake, the largest ever recorded in North America. It lasted 4 minutes and was followed by tsunamis and fires and 131 people were killed.



Much of Crescent City, Ca., was demolished and 12 people were killed by a resulting tsunami.


March 27, 1998 -
The US Food and Drug Administration approved the drug Viagra (Sildenafil citrate), made by Pfizer, saying it helped about two-thirds of impotent men improve their sexual function. Viagra's effects were shown to last 8-12 hours (but remember if your erection last more than 4 hours, after calling your friends, please seek medical assistance.)



Pfizer had originally tested the compound UK 92,480 as a drug for angina and found that male volunteers were getting frequent erections - don't ask . They renamed it Viagra and sought sales approval.



And so it goes.