Try the Valsalva maneuver

It's National Hiccup Day today (apparently, according to the interweb, this is a cure for hiccups - Pinch your nose, close your mouth and pretend to blow up a balloon. Well, either that, or a digital rectal massage.)



It's also known as synchronous diaphragmatic flutter or singultus.

Now you know.


March 16 -
Today is the celebration of St. Urho's Day, patron saint of Finnish vineyard workers.

Attributed to him is the miracle of banishing grasshoppers from Finland which he accomplished with a few choice Finnish phrases, thereby saving the season's grape crop.



But in reality a bunch of very drunk people made this up in 1956.



Please celebrate responsibly, (remember, tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day.)


March 16, 1934 -
An (almost) all singing Popeye cartoon, The Man on the Flying Trapeze, premiered on this date.



The Daring Young Man On The Flying Trapeze is based on a real person: Jules Leotard. He was a former law student who ran away from home and joined a circus as an adolescent. Young Jules was the first performer to wear the skin-tight suit of clothes that would later be named after him; he died of tuberculosis aged only twenty-eight.


March 16, 1935 -
The first Disney animated short to feature Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy as a comedy trio, Mickey's Service Station, opened on this date.



This is the third and final appearance of Donald Duck in black and white.


March 16, 1940 -
The Merrie Melodies cartoon, Cross Country Detours, a wacky travelogue parody, directed by Tex Avery, opened on this date.



This is the second longest Golden Age Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies short, clocking short of 10 minutes on its original theatrical release, only behind Horton Hatches the Egg.


March 16, 1954 -
Max Ophüls' beautifully acted film, La Ronde, premiered in the US on this date. (Psst kids, the films about the transmission of syphilis - really.)



The film was shot entirely in the studio.  


March 16, 1955 -
Elia Kazan's powerful family drama, East of Eden, premiered in Los Angeles on this date (this is the only one of the "big three" James Dean films to be released before his death.)



In the scene where Adam refuses to accept Cal's money, the script called for Cal to turn away in anger from his father. It was James Dean's instinct to embrace him instead. This came as a surprise to Raymond Massey, who could think of nothing to do but say, "Cal! Cal!" in response.


March 16, 1960 -
One of the iconic films of the French New Wave, À Bout de Souffle (Breathless), directed by Jean-Luc Godard, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg was released in France on this date.



Jean-Paul Belmondo was very surprised by the warm reception the film received. Immediately after production he was convinced it was so bad that he thought the film would never be released.


March 16, 1963 -
The musical group of Peter Paul and Mary released their hit single Puff the Magic Dragon, on this date. This song was rumored to be about drugs, particularly marijuana.



Some of the alleged drug references in this song include the "autumn mist," which was marijuana smoke, and the "land of Hanah Lee," which was the Hawaiian town of Hanalei, famous for its marijuana plants. Peter Yarrow insists that not only did the song have nothing to do with drugs, but that he didn't even know about pot in 1958, which kills any theories that he put drug references in subconsciously.



March 16, 1967 -

The Star Trek episode Errand of Mercy premiered on this date. In it, Kirk and Spock attempt to protect the planet Organia from the Klingon and sway them to the side of the Federation, but they aren’t welcome.



The episode marks the first appearance of Klingons on the series. Popularly known as The Vietnam Story, for its obvious allusions to Vietnam and its abuse by the colonial powers.


March 16, 1979 -
CBS aired a television documentary featuring the rock band Wings, Wings Over the World, on this date.



The special consisted of concert performances from their acclaimed 1975–76 world tour, together with behind-the-scenes footage.


March 16, 1979 -
The Columbia Pictures thriller The China Syndrome, starring Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, and Wilford Brimley premiered in the US on this date. The film opened less than two weeks before the Three Mile Island Nuclear meltdown.



When the film was first released, nuclear power executives soon lambasted the picture as being "sheer fiction" and a "character assassination of an entire industry". Then twelve days after its launch, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident occurred near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.


March 16, 2019 -
Lil Nas X's song Old Town Road makes the Country chart, but is removed the following week when Billboard declares it ineligible for the tally.



Like most unknown artists, Lil Nas X wasn't signed to a label when he uploaded this song to YouTube and various streaming platforms. When it became a viral sensation, radio stations added it to their playlists, but had to get it by ripping the song from YouTube because there was no label to service it. With a hit on his hands, Lil Nas X found himself in a a bidding war among multiple labels. Columbia Records won out and Lil Nas X inked an exclusive agreement with them on March 22, 2019.


Word of the Day


Today in History:
March 16 1190 -
More than 150 and perhaps as many as 500 Jews, secured in Clifford's Tower at York, died from suicide and massacre after they were sieged by townspeople under Richard Malebys on this date. Malebys was a nobleman who owed money to the Jews; after their siege all records relating to moneylending were destroyed.

This was seen as a warm-up for the Crusaders invasion of the Holy Land. It is the largest massacre of Jews in the history of the United Kingdom.


March 16 1792 -
At a masquerade ball, a disgruntled Captain Jacob Johan Ankarstroem shot Swedish King Gustav III near the heart with a bullet composed of lead and carpet tacks, on this date. It took the King almost two weeks to die.

Shakespeare never wrote about Gustavus, probably because Gustavus was born well after Shakespeare's death, but Giuseppe Verdi (or under his stage name, Joe Green) wrote an opera about the affair called Un Ballo in Maschera ("A Bull in Mascara").



As punishment, the Captain was decapitated, drawn, and quartered.

Ouch!!!


March 16, 1912 -
I'll have to have a room of my own. Nobody could sleep with Dick. He wakes up during the night, switches on the lights, speaks into his tape recorder.

Thelma Catherine Pat Nixon (nee Ryan) - the patron saint of long suffering political wives and good Republican cloth coats was born on this date.


March 16, 1916 –
Tsutomu Yamaguchi, born on this date, was one of the only individuals who witnessed and survived both atom bombs in Japan, Hiroshima on August 6th, and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945.



Mr. Yamaguchi slowly recovered and went on to live a relatively normal life. He died from radiation related stomach cancer at 93, on January 4, 2010.


March 16, 1926 -
I will do whatever is necessary to make better the stupidity on my part - and therefore go after those who are acting stupid themselves. It's not popular. You don't make friends when you do that. And I couldn't care less.



Joseph Levitch, comedian, actor, producer, writer, director, singer, Légion d'honneur recipient and the dollar sign in Dean Martin eyes, was born on this date.


March 16, 1926 -
Robert H. Goddard, fueled the first hopes of space travel when he successfully launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket at Auburn, Massachusetts on this date.



The rocket traveled for 2.5 seconds at a speed of about 60 mph, reaching an altitude of 41 feet. The rocket was 10 feet tall, constructed out of thin pipes, and was fueled by liquid oxygen and gasoline.

(This will be on the test.)


March 16 1949 -
It's Erik Estrada's birthday today.



Reason enough to live another day.


March 16, 1966 -
NASA launches the Gemini 8 on this date. It is the twelfth manned American space mission. Shortly after its launch, it will take part in the first physical docking of two spacecraft in orbit when it rendezvous with the Gemini Agena to conduct extravehicular activities six hours and thirty-three minutes after launch.



However, about twenty-seven minutes after docking, a malfunction in the capsule’s control thrusters occurs, and it is forced to abort the mission and return to Earth, only 6.5 orbits after launch. The mission is crewed by command pilot Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong and pilot Astronaut David R. Scott.


March 16 1978 -
Italian Red Brigades kidnapped former Italian Premier Aldo Moro on this date, in order to obtain the release of imprisoned comrades.



Moro was murdered and his body was later found on May 9, 1978.



And so it goes.

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.