Claim you seat now

The Oscars are on tonight on ABC-TV.





Remember It's just an honor to wins your Oscar pool - actual betting on the results of the Oscars is illegal in most states.


Today is National Peanut Lovers Day, as opposed to National Peanut Butter Lovers Day which is celebrated at the beginning of the month. Peanuts are one of America's favorite legumes - we each eat about six pounds of them a year.



All of this is well and good but you may ask, why bring it up? It's much less controversial than mentioning that it's International Eat an Animal for PETA Day - really, look it up.


March 15, 1941 -
The first of three appearances of Cecil Turtle, Tortoise Beats Hare, premiered on this date.



This is the first time Bugs Bunny loses in the end, proving that Bugs isn't completely indestructible; Cecil is one of the very few characters who was actually able to beat Bugs Bunny not once but three times in a row and at the rabbit's own game.


March 15, 1946 -
Columbia Pictures released Charles Vidor's film-noir classic, Gilda, starring Rita Hayworth and Glen Ford on this date.



Harry Cohn was worried about bad publicity affecting Rita Hayworth's box-office pull; her marriage to Orson Welles was a constant worry for him. Hayworth and Welles were, in fact, in the middle of one of their separations during the shooting, and the gossip magazines were full of stories of an affair between her and Glenn Ford. When the two weren't filming, the mogul would barrage the duo with angry phone calls and demand that Hayworth go home.


March 15, 1956 -
The landmark science-fiction film, Forbidden Planet (think The Tempest in Outer Space), premiered on this date.





The famous poster for the film shows a menacing robot carrying a struggling pretty girl - a staple of "monster movie" posters from the 1950's. In fact, no such scene occurs in the film itself and the robot portrayed in the poster is of course actually the very likeable Robby the Robot.


March 15, 1972 -
George Roy Hill's adaptation of the 1969 novel by Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughter House-Five, starring Michael Sacks, Ron Leibman, and Valerie Perrine opened in the US on this date.



Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was a prisoner of war in World War II. He was captured during the Battle of the Bulge while a battalion scout with the 106 Infantry Division on December 22, 1944, and used these experiences in his novel when Billy Pilgrim is captured by the Germans and sent to a POW camp. Vonnegut also lived through the bombing of Dresden and used that experience in the book.


March 15, 1972 -
The greatest film ever about cooking for a large group and risk aversion management, The Godfather, premiered in New York City on this date.







Marlon Brando wanted to make Don Corleone "look like a bulldog," so he stuffed his cheeks with cotton wool for the audition. For the actual filming, he wore a mouthpiece made by a dentist. This appliance is on display in the American Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York.


March 15, 1975 -
Electric Light Orchestra's single Can't Get It Out of My Head, became their first top ten single in the U.S., (with peaked at no. nine on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart,) on this date.



Jeff Lynne recalled in an edition of VH1's Storytellers, that he found inspiration for the song in the unfulfilled reveries of an everyday bloke. "It's about a guy in a dream who sees this vision of loveliness and wakes up and finds that he's actually a clerk working in a bank," he said. "And he hasn't got any chance of getting her or doing all these wonderful things that he thought he was going to do."


March 15, 1975 -
The Doobie Brothers song Black Water hit the No. 1 position on the Billboard charts, on this date.



Black Water wasn't seen as having hit potential, so it was relegated to the B-side of Another Park, Another Sunday.


March 15, 1977 -
Everybody was first welcomed to The Regal Beagle when Three's Company, starring John Ritter, Joyce DeWitt, and Suzanne Somers, premiered on this date.



John Ritter is the only cast member to appear in every episode.


March 15, 1977 -
One of the first TV "dramedies", Eight Is Enough began airing on ABC-TV on this date.



Based on the 1975 autobiographical account of newspaper editor and columnist Thomas Braden, who also served as co-host, with Pat Buchanan, of CNN's Crossfire. They changed the name from Braden to Bradford because they thought Bradford sounded more likable, more all-American, less ethnic. But the first name of the book's hero, Tom, stayed the same, as did the first names of the mother and the eight children.


March 15, 1985 -
The 1948 film Sitting Pretty, starring Clifton Webb, was adapted in the TV sitcom, Mr. Belvedere, starring, Christopher Hewett, Bob Uecker, and Ilene Graff, premiered on ABC TV, on this date.



The series was the fourth attempt to adapt the 1947 novel Belvedere by Gwen Davenport and subsequent film series for television. In 1956, a pilot was produced but was rejected by the networks. In 1959, a second pilot starring Hans Conried was also rejected. In 1965, a third pilot starring Victor Buono also failed to sell.


March 15, 1986 -
During the Saturday Night Live sketch Mr. Monopoly, cast member Damon Wayans ad-libbed his police officer character role as a gay stereotype, which would later result in his firing, on this day.



In the season finale however, executive producer Lorne Michaels invited Wayans back to perform stand up on the show, even though he had been fired by Michaels from the show two months prior.


March 15, 1988 -
Talking Heads release their eighth and final album, Naked, on this date.



The album was co-produced with the band by Steve Lillywhite, an Englishman known for his work with Peter Gabriel and U2. He was married to the singer Kirsty MacColl, who contributed backing vocals of the song, (Nothing But) Flowers.


Another album from the discount bin of The ACME Record Shoppe


Today in History:
March 15, 44 BC -
Julius Caesar, already warned to be wary on this the Ides of March by the astrologer Spurinna, was assassinated with pointy knives by a group of Senators, including Brutus and Cassius, at the Pompey theater.



They were angry at him because he had crossed the Rubicon. Later Marc Antony borrowed everyone's ears and told them that Brutus was an honorable man, which upset them so much they had a Civil War.



Sixteen centuries later, more or less, William Shakespeare immortalized the story and eventually Marlon Brando got to play Marc Antony, so everyone was happy in the end.



Caesar is also celebrated because he wrote a famous book called The Garlic Wars, which begins with the famous line, All garlic is divided into three cloves. It also includes the line - veni, vidi, vinci, the exact meaning of which is still a matter of debate but, if my own Latin studies are worth anything, probably involves Druids and hollandaise sauce.


March 15, 1812 -
Luddites attack Frank Vickerman's wool processing factory at Taylor Hill in West Yorkshire, on this date, resulting in general destruction and attempted arson.

The rampaging Luddites were incensed because his machines replaced workers, but Vickerman was primarily targeted because of involvement in an Anti-Luddite committee.

So now you know more about Luddites than you thought you ever would (remember, smash the fitbits.)


Today's episode of Oh, that Wacky Russian Revolution:
At two o'clock in the morning on March 15, 1917 the Tsar sent word to Petrograd that he was awfully sorry about the war and starvation and everything, but that he had some really good ideas about what they could do now, was looking forward to working with them, believed that healthy debate was a symptom of good government, and so on.

The new government (which had recently moved to Moscow) told him to blow it out his ass.



And so at three o'clock in the afternoon, Nicholas abdicated in favor of his son, Alexei (who had measles).

The new government told him and his son to blow it out their asses.



At 11:15 pm, Nicholas signed a proclamation that both he and his son (who had measles) would abdicate in favor of his brother, the Grand Duke Mikhail.



At 11:15 pm, Nicholas signed a proclamation that both he and his son (who had measles) would abdicate in favor of his brother, the Grand Duke Mikhail.



The next day, the new government told Nicholas, Alexei (who had measles), and the Grand Duke Mikhail to blow it out their asses.

(It seems that they were anally fixated.)


March 15, 1950 -
New York City suffering through a persistent drought, hired for $100 a day - a very large sum in those times, particularly for a scientist - Dr. Wallace E. Howell, a meteorologist to make rain, on this date. Dr. Howell, who had participated in early scientific research into cloud seeding, set up shop at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, using a police airplane to sprinkle silver iodide crystals into clouds over the Catskill watershed.

The rains came and the reservoirs began to rise. There was even a mid-April snowstorm, referred to in the papers as ''Howell's snow.'' By 1951, the crisis had passed and Dr. Howell was laid off in February of 1951.


March 15, 1964 -
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, finally legitimized their scandalous affair and were married on this date.



Both were already married – he was married at the time to former actress Sybil Williams, she to her fourth husband Eddie Fisher, whom she had famously ‘stolen’ from Debbie Reynolds.


March 15, 2006 -
A stockpile of provisions that were made for the survival of residents if New York City had been hit by a nuclear attack has been found inside the masonry foundations of Brooklyn Bridge, on this date.



City workers had been conducting a regular structural inspection of the bridge when they came across the cold-war-era hoard of water drums, medical supplies, survivor blankets, drugs and food in the 350,000 Civil Defense All Purpose Survival Crackers. These are said to been put there in the 1950s. And if you hurry, some of those crackers are still on sale at Lots Less.



And so it goes.

Come to the nerd side, we have Pi!

(Sorry for the delay in posting)

Today is Pi Day!

Pi Day was founded by Physicist Larry Shaw in 1988.



Pi Day is celebrated by math enthusiasts (read - lonely shut-ins) around the world on March 14th.



? was first used as a mathematical symbol in 1706 by William Jones.



Albert Einstein's parents conveniently arranged for him to be born on Pi Day in 1879.


March 14, 1940 -
The first of the seven Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour "Road" films, The Road to Singapore, premiered in NYC on this date.



Originally written as Beach of Dreams for George Burns and Gracie Allen. Later retitled Road to Mandalay for Fred MacMurray and Jack Oakie. After George Burns and Fred MacMurray turned down the chance to make this film, producer Harlan Thompson offered it to Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, whom he'd seen clowning on the Paramount lot and who it seemed to him got along well.


March 14, 1957 -

A television adaption for Playhouse 90 of F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished last novel The Last Tycoon, (one of the 152 live TV dramas John Frankenheimer directed between 1952 and 1960) starring Jack Palance, Keenan Wynn, Viveca Lindfors, and Peter Lorre premiered on this date.



Fitzgerald’s unfinished Hollywood novel The Last Tycoon was scripted by Don M. Mankiewicz, who had grown up in the novel’s Hollywood setting; he was the son of Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz.


March 14, 1958 -
The first ever Gold Record is awarded for sales of a million copies, went to Mr. Excitement himself, Perry Como, for his recording of Catch A Falling Star, on this date.





Perry Como, with his relaxed style, was one of the highest-paid performers of his era and his Perry Como Show was the most successful television variety show of the time in both Britain and America. Como sang this song on his show in January 1958 and its exposure contributed to the tune's success.


March 14, 1965 –
Petula Clark makes her American TV debut on CBS-TV’s Ed Sullivan Show, on this date.





Sullivan later recalled that her plane landed and 45 minutes later she performed live without any rehearsal. That night she sang her number one hit Downtown and her follow up hit I Know a Place, which went to number three.


March 14, 1968 -
The final episode of Batman, Minerva, Mayhem and Millionaires, starring Adam West and Burt Ward aired on the ABC TV on this date.



This was the season finale of the Batman series. However it was not the last time we would see the caped crusaders. Adam West appeared in full costume and part costume on various tv shows throughout the late 60s and 1970s. Adam West and Burt Ward would reprise the roles again in 1977 for The New Adventures of Batman.


March 14, 1969 -
The Star Trek episode All Our Yesterdays first aired on this date. This is the penultimate episode of the original Star Trek series.

In it, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are trapped on a planet which will soon be destroyed in a supernova.



When first arriving on the planet Sarpeidon and meeting Mr Atoz, Kirk, Spock and McCoy all failed to mention that they are not natives of this planet and are only there to investigate the disappearance of the inhabitants. A simple explanation would have saved Mr. Atoz much confusion and consternation as he hurried to find them time periods into which they could escape destruction.


March 14, 1969 -
The Walt Disney studio put the film, The Love Bug, starring 'Herbie,' a loveable Volkswagen bug with a personality, into general release on this date.



Dean Jones personally requested to play the hippy at the drive-in. The director originally turned him down, but after Jones proved that he could convincingly take on the persona, he was immediately given the part.


March 14, 1975 -
Melvin Frank's film adaptation of Neil Simon's comedy The Prisoner of Second Avenue, starring Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft, opened in NYC, on this date.



According to the Jack Lemmon's biography Lemmon by Don Widener, actress Anne Bancroft recounted this episode from the film's shooting: "[Jack was] nice to a point where he's crazy...We had a scene in 'Prisoner [of Second Avenue'] where he had to carry a shovel in - a very close two-shot favoring me. I played the scene with tears in my eyes because Jack had accidentally hit me in the shin with that shovel. The director saw something was wrong so he stopped everything. I had a big bump on my leg, but it was Friday and over the weekend I fixed it up. When we came back on Monday the first scene was a retake of the shovel thing. Well, Jack brought the shovel in and I anticipated getting hit again. He's so full of energy, you're sure he's not noticing; but he never touched me. The take was fine, but Jack limped away. To avoid hurting me, he had cut himself. He was bleeding and we had to bandage his leg; his wound was much worse than mine. He is so kind he hurt himself rather than injure someone else. That's a little crazy! It's the nicest crazy I know, and I know a lot of crazy people."


March 14, 1979 -
United Artists version of the Broadway anti-war musical Hair, directed by Miloš Forman, and starring Treat Williams, John Savage, Beverly D'Angelo, Nell Carter, Cheryl Barnes, Richard Bright, Ellen Foley and Charlotte Rae, premiered in Century City on this date.



Diane Keaton sang White Boys/Black Boys In the original stage version. By the time the movie came out ten years later, Keaton was an A-List movie star, probably too big to do a walk-on extra type role she did in the theater production in 1967. The role went to Ellen Foley.


March 14, 1981 -
Roxy Music had their only U.K. No. 1 single with their version of John Lennon's Jealous Guy, on this date.



Roxy Music recorded this as a tribute to Lennon, who was murdered on December 8, 1980. Bryan Ferry performs the whistling solo on the Roxy Music version. The Roxy frontman's whistling prowess harks back to his paper round days as a youngster when he used to do plenty of whistling.


March 14, 1989 -
De La Soul released their debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising, on this date.



The album was one of the most innovative records of the late 1980s, its merging of traditional hip-hop with humorous lyrics, abundant samples and jazz elements went on to inspire numerous artists


March 14, 2007 -
The comedy-action film, Hot Fuzz, directed by Edgar Wright, and starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Timothy Dalton and Jim Broadbent, was shown at ShoWest on this date.



When in costume, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg often were assumed to be police officers. Many strangers asked them for directions, and instead of telling the truth they went along with it. They claimed it made them feel powerful.

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


Today in History:
March 14, 1794 -
Eli Whitney was granted a patent for the Cotton Gin on this date



While it is potable, gin flavored with juniper berries is still a better choice for a very dry martini.


March 14, 1883 -
“Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workingmen of all countries, unite!”

Karl Marx died of pleurisy in London on this date. While his original grave had only a nondescript stone, the Communist Party of Great Britain erected a large tombstone, including a bust of Marx, in 1954.

His premature death prevented him from seeing the global impact of his progeny: Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Gummo, and Zeppo. Karl Marx was born in Trier, Prussia, on May 5, 1818. He went to school at a time of severe repression. Pianos had to have skirts on them for fear young men would become aroused by the sight of their bare legs. The Prussian government kept teachers under police surveillance to make sure they wouldn't teach anything too radical, like 2 + 2 = 4, and so the students, including Marx, became extremely radical.

(There are no known photos of Karl and Gummo together; they never got along.)

As a result of his beliefs, Marx was not able to get a job as a chicken inspector after he got his doctorate in philosophy. Without a job, he spent his time analyzing history and stealing tips left for waiters at the coffeehouses he frequented, and came to the conclusion that all historical events were caused by economic forces.



He became involved in Communism—the belief that all private property should be abolished, men and women should not bathe or shave, and pickled herring should be used as cologne. Marx moved around Europe, writing for newspapers and pornographic pamphlets, studying, and wanting to write a book about his economic ideas. But Marx was an obsessive researcher and never knew when to stop reading and start writing. He only became productive after he met Friedrich Engels, a socialist who was also wealthy—the heir to a textile business and a primitive whoopee-cushion novelty item.

Their main theory was that the economic system was a perpetual conflict between those who controlled the capital and those who provided the labor; that the conflict would never be resolved peacefully; that in a free market workers would periodically lose their jobs, their standard of living would fall, and this would inevitably lead to violent revolution. He believed that giant corporations would dominate the world's industries and that globalism in trade would make markets even more unstable. He also believed that you could hard-boil an egg by holding it under one's armpit for a week, thus saving money by not paying the gas bill.



Marx and Engels published their Communist Manifesto and What the Butler Saw Whilst Polishing the Knob in 1848, and revolution did break out afterward in France, Italy, and Austria. Marx's newspaper was shut down and he had to flee the country. He moved to London, where he worked for years on his final book, Das Kapital. With his family in poverty, Marx said, “I don't suppose anyone has ever written about 'money' when so short of the stuff.” A spy from Prussia was keeping tabs on him and wrote, “Washing, grooming, and changing his clothes are things he does rarely. He does not shave at all. But he does have an unnatural obsession with watching Armenian women clip their toenails!”



He fed his family on bread and potatoes, and when one of his children died, his wife had to borrow money from a neighbor to buy a coffin.

When Marx died in 1883, only 11 persons came to his funeral. And they were all charged a mourner's tax!


March 14, 1885 -
Gilbert & Sullivan's two-act operetta The Mikado opened on this date, in London, where it ran at the Savoy Theatre for 672 performances, which was the second longest run for any work of musical theater and one of the longest runs of any theater piece up to that time.



Before the end of 1885, it was estimated that, in Europe and America, at least 150 companies were producing the opera.


March 14, 1889 -
German Ferdinand von Zeppelin was issued a US Patent (#621,195) for his Navigable Balloon on this date.

He did not speak with Paul von Hindenburg about it at the time.


March 14, 1912 -
A young anarchist, Antonio Dalba, shot at King Victor Emmanuel III and queen Elena (of Montenegro) of Italy on this date, but missed, hitting a bodyguard and his horse instead. Their majesties were attending the annual memorial service for the previous king, Umberto I, who was assassinated by an anarchist in 1900 (whose assassination inspired Leon Czolgosz to shoot President McKinley).

Since Dalba was a legal minor (20) at the time, he could not be executed. He was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment, but, perhaps because of his increasing mental instability, was pardoned in 1921, only to be committed two months later to a mental hospital, where he died in 1953.


Today on March 14 1932, one of the greatest notes was written:



George Eastman, the founder of Kodak Corporation, killed himself after a long illness on this date.

His suicide note states "To my friends: My work is done. Why wait?"

All in all, terse but to the point.


March 14, 1933 -
It's amazing how much trouble you can get in when you don't have anything else to do..



Quincy Delight Jones Jr. record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer was born on this date.


March 14, 1942 -
Mrs. Anne Miller was near death at New Haven Hospital, suffering from a streptococcal infection, before doctors Orvan Hess and John Bumsfield decided to use an experimental treatment - Penicillin, on this date. This was the first time penicillin was successfully used to treat a patient in the US.



Although Dr. Alexander Fleming had proven that penicillin was an effective antibacterial in 1928, few doctors seemed interested in using the common mold as a medicinal tool. Supplies were limited at the time, nearly half of the total supply produced were used on Mrs. Miller. She survived, living to be 90 years old and penicillin became widely used.

As I am deathly allergic to the drug, this medical advancement is almost meaningless to me.


Before you go - Here is your 98th Oscar ballot for tomorrow night:

Please remember that betting on the Oscars is illegal in most states; it should be used for entertainment purposes only.



And so it goes.

Sinister aura of ill will

Sorry Bunkies, it's Friday the 13th.

In most large cities in the United States, many building don't have 13th floors. In Japan, they don't have 4th floors, because the word for four sounds similar to the word for DEATH! Some say that the modern basis for Friday the 13th phobia dates back to Friday, October 13, 1307.



On this date, Pope Clement in conjunction with the King Philip of France secretly ordered the mass arrest of all the Knights Templar in France. The Templars were terminated with extreme prejudice (burned to a crisp) for apostasy, idolatry, heresy, "obscene rituals" and homosexuality, corruption and fraud, and secrecy, never again to hold the power that they had held for so long.

Those wacky Knights were such party animals.



Nathaniel Lachenmeyer, author of 13: The Story of the World's Most Popular Superstition, suggests in his book that references to Friday the 13th were practically nonexistent before 1907; the popularity of the superstition must come from the publication of Thomas W. Lawson's successful novel (of it's day,) Friday, the Thirteenth. In the novel, a stock broker takes advantage of the superstition to create a Wall Street panic on Friday the 13th.

If the thought of the day bothers you, unfortunately this coming November has another Friday the 13th in it.


National K9 Veterans Day, March 13, is a day set aside to honor commemorate the service and sacrifices of American military and working dogs throughout history. The Army began training for its new War Dog Program, also known as the "K-9 Corps" on this date in 1942, according to American Humane, marking the first time that dogs were officially a part of the U.S. Armed Forces.



The top canine hero of World War II was Chips, a German Shepherd who served with the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division. Trained as a sentry dog, Chips broke away from his handlers and attacked an enemy machine gun nest in Italy, forcing the entire crew to surrender.


To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.

Spring is a week away!


March 13, 1949 -
Donald Fauntleroy Duck's birthday is officially recognized as June 9, 1934, the day his debut film was released, but in The Three Caballeros, his birthday is given as simply Friday the 13th. In Donald's Happy Birthday, the cartoon gives his birthday as March 13. (The best guess is this would be Donald's 107th birthday.)



Things that make you go hmmmm - Donald doesn’t wear pants but when he comes out of the shower, covers himself with a towel.


March 13, 1954 -
It's Rocky's third appearance in a Bugs Bunny cartoon (and the funniest) - Bugs and Thugs, premiered on this date.



Near the end of the film, Bugs' office has a sign that says - "Member- Detective Guild, Local 839". Local 839 of the IATSE was the Animation Guild, whose members made the cartoon.


March 13, 1956 -
One of John Ford's greatest westerns, The Searchers, starring John Wayne (giving his finest performance) premiered on this date.





While on the desert locale, John Ford was stung by a scorpion. Worried about his investment, financial backer C.V. Whitney asked John Wayne, "What if we lose him? What are we going to do?" Wayne offered to check in on the "stricken" director. A few minutes later he came out of Ford's trailer and said to Whitney, "It's OK. John's fine, it's the scorpion that died."


March 13, 1968 -
The Beatles release the single Lady Madonna in the UK on this date.



Paul McCartney said that this song is a tribute to women everywhere. It was inspired by a photo of a woman in Vietnam suckling her child, over the caption "Mountain Madonna." The photo appeared in the January 1965 issue of National Geographic as part of an article called "American Special Forces in Action in Viet Nam."


March 13, 1979 -
A spin-off from the Three's Company series, The Ropers, starring Norman Fell and Audra Lindley premiered on ABC TV, on this date.



When the network proposed the spin-off of Three's Company, focusing on the Ropers, Audra Lindley was excited and wanted to go ahead, but Norman Fell wasn't too keen on the idea. Fell felt that you couldn't do a series with 'only' the running gag of Mrs. Roper being undersexed. The network assured him the show would have more substance than that, and furthermore, if the show didn't make it a full season, he and Audra could come back full time to Three's Company as the Ropers. So it was after six months of convincing, Norman Fell finally gave in. The Ropers made it a season and a half before it was canceled, As a result, ABC Network was not obligated to take them back to Three's Company, because their contract had passed the one year mark, so Norman Fell and Audra Lindley were out of work. However, despite their hard feelings they did reprise their roles as guest stars on Three's Company as Mr and Mrs Roper one last time before their characters were retired for good.


March 13, 1982 -
William Shatner, donned his man girdle once again when T.J. Hooker, costarring Adrian Zmed, premiered on ABC-TV, on this date.



The series was originally to be titled The Protectors, which would be the title of the show's pilot. Creator Rick Husky originally developed the show as a newer version of his previous series The Rookies, and intended the show as an ensemble series. Noting William Shatner's prominence in the pilot, it was decided to make Hooker the focus of the show, and title the series after the character.


March 13, 1992 -
Merchant Ivory Productions release of the adaptation of E. M. Forster's novel, Howards End, directed by James Ivory, from a screenplay written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and starring Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham Carter, Vanessa Redgrave, Jemma Redgrave and Prunella Scales, opened in the US on this date.



The country house used as the location for Howards End is over twice as large as seen from the front and partial side views used in this movie. It is H-shaped with a large back portion, into which its owners moved during filming, while the front portion was emptied and refinished. (The landscaping was also redone, with flowers and plants truer to the story's period.) The house is owned by friends of production designer Luciana Arrighi, and it occurred to her it would make a good stand-in for Howards End, while she was a houseguest there.


March 13, 1992 -
20th Century Fox released the comedy My Cousin Vinny, directed by Jonathan Lynn and starring Joe Pesci, Ralph Macchio, Marisa Tomei, Mitchell Whitfield and Fred Gwynne on this date.



Director Jonathan Lynn actually has a law degree and insisted the film's legal proceedings be realistic. In fact, many attorneys and law professors have praised the film for its accurate depiction of trial strategy and courtroom procedure, especially with regards to presenting expert witnesses at trial. Additionally, the film has been screened at some law schools to illustrate courtroom procedures.


March 13, 1993 -
Eric Clapton’s LP Unplugged hit No.1 on the Billboard charts — and stayed there — becoming the most successful and best-selling live album of all time.



It was nominated for nine Grammy Awards in 1993 and won six, including Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year.


March 13, 1995 -
The short-lived cartoon series, The Shnookums & Meat Funny Cartoon Show aired as part of the Soap Opera Family block on Disney Channel on this date. It later aired on ABC's Saturday morning lineup, but was canceled due to low ratings and controversy over its dark, violent humor



A canned SpaghettiOs pasta meal from Franco-American (a division of Campbell's) featuring pasta modeled after the characters Shnookums and Meat was produced as a tie-in product. In a surreal note, the label had a disclaimer stating that the product itself contained no meat, but the "meat" referred to on the label was the character "Meat" (although it was also available with meatballs, which did, obviously, contain meat).


March 13, 1995 -
Parlophone Records released Radiohead's second studio album, The Bends, in the UK on this date.



John Leckie, the producer of The Bends, recalled to Q magazine April 2008 the recording of the album: "I love the album but by the end of the sessions I felt devastated. Without telling me, the band sent copies of the master tapes to the States to be mixed by the Americans who produced Pablo Honey. It was the first time it had happened to me. After 100 days' work I felt like I'd given birth to a dozen babies and had them all taken away. I wasn't even invited to the final playback. The band chose me as producer because I did the first Magazine album Real Life, which they were all big fans of. I suggested we use the Manor studio in Oxfordshire but they said it was 'too rock 'n' roll' and went for Mickie Most's RAK studio in London, where they worked solidly for nine weeks. Thom would be there when the studio opened at 9 o'clock, working on his own at the piano before the others turned up at 12. After that the band went off on a tour of the Far East. When they came back they weren't happy with a lot of what we'd done at RAK so they decided they would use the Manor after all. After that I went to Abbey Road to start mixing. I heard later the band said it was like the schoolteacher had left the room. Maybe it was an age thing, I was 20 years older than them. They felt more comfortable with RAK's assistant engineer, this young guy, Nigel Godrich."


March 13, 1999 -
Cher's single Believe hit No. #1 on the Billboard singles chart on this date and stayed there for four weeks, make Cher the oldest woman to top the Hot 100, (it's very rude to ask how old.)



The song reached No.1 in almost every country it charted, including the UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Spain, France, Germany and Italy.  The song was “auto-tuned”, made by audio processing software, a relatively new process that became known as the “Cher effect”.


March 13, 2005 -
The comedy-variety program, Kelsey Grammer Presents The Sketch Show premiered on FOX-TV, on this date.



Six episodes were made but only four episodes aired and the remaining two were supposed to air April 2005 but FOX decided to ended the show's season early and later cancel it.


Another unimportant moment in history


Today in History:
March 13, 1639 -
A recently founded school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, New School, renamed itself Harvard College on this date in honor of clergyman John Harvard, who'd bequeathed £780 and his 400 volume library to the educational establishment.



From 1780 onwards it was referred to as Harvard University.


March 13, 1781 -
Scottish astronomer Sir William Herschel discovered Uranus (which he named 'Georgium Sidus,' in honor of George III,) on this date, which he first mistook for a comet



It is the first planet discovered with the aid of a telescope. Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and is named after the Greek god Uranus, who was a god of sky.

(Twice in one week, I've mentioned Uranus, feel free to guffaw like a small child.)


March 13, 1852 —

Frank Bellew's cartoon, “Uncle Sam,” made its debut today in the NY Lantern Weekly on this date.



The character's name is attributed to Samuel Wilson, a meat packer who supplied food to the troops during the War of 1812.


March 13, 1877 –
The first US Patent (#188,292) for earmuffs was issued to teen-aged Chester Greenwood of Farmington, Maine on this date.

Think about this as you venture out during the winter.


March 13, 1881 -
An anarchist Nikolai Rysakov, from the radical group People's Will threw a bomb which disrupts Czar Alexander II's motorcade. Startled but unharmed, Alexander thanked God for his deliverance, another anarchist Ignacy Hryniewiecki, yelled "It is too early to thank God" and throws a second bomb, causing severe injuries from which Alexander bled to death several hours later.



(Nicholas II, Alexander's grandson, was one of the unfortunate witnesses to Czar's gruesome death.)


March 13, 1911 -
Today is the birthday of L. Ron Hubbard (the "L" is for Lafayette.) Mr. Hubbard invented Dianetics, which eventually led to Scientology, causing Scientologists and Personality Tests.

Scientologists are easily distinguished from Jehovah's Witnesses in that they don't ask you subscribe to The Watchtower and they can often be seen in major motion pictures.


Today on Oh That Wacky Russian Revolution:
March 13, 1917 -
The imperial guard, acting on the orders of the dissolved Duma, which had not been dissolved, took the Tsarina and her children (who had measles) into custody. A day later, England and France acknowledged the Executive Committee of the Duma as the official government of Russia.

Meanwhile, Nicholas II had taken a train to Pskov. He knew the revolutionaries would be unlikely to pursue him somewhere so difficult to pronounce.

That evening in St. Petersburg, the Executive Committee of the Duma met with the Petrograd Soviet and agreed that the Russian Cabinet should be dissolved, and also the Tsar.

They established a joint government, with Prince Grigori Lvov at its head, nicely countering the Czar's difficult pronunciation ploy. They put the Russian Cabinet in prison, next to the Russian Credenza.


March 13, 1964 -
A young woman, Kitty Genovese was murdered in front of multiple witnesses, all of whom fail to help her, in an incident which shocks the world and prompts investigation into the bystander effect. (This story have been proven a lie; many of her neighbors in fact did attempt to help. Only two people, who actually witnessed the attack did nothing.)



Winston Moseley was found guilty of Genovese’s murder. He was initially sentenced to death, but that was commuted several years later and changed to life in prison, where he died in 2016. At the time of his death, Moseley has spent more time in the New York prison system than any other prisoner.



And so it goes.