If you're not covered in dog hair, your life is empty

Today is the second day of the Lunar New Year. In Chinese mythology, this day is believed to be the birthday of all dogs, so it is a common custom to treat pets and stray dogs with extra kindness and good food. .



The God of Wealth presides over a vast bureaucracy with many minor deities under his authority. A majestic figure robed in exquisite silks, he is often pictured riding a black tiger; a golden yuanbao (an ancient ingot used for currency) is always close to him. Legend says that every Lunar New Year, Tsai Shen descends from heaven to inspect his followers.

People eat dumplings to honor the god because they are thought to resemble the yuanbao. Tsai Shen returns to heaven on the second day of the Lunar New Year to report on who should receive good fortune in the coming year.



Traditionally, this is the time for married women to visit their parents. In ancient China, women rarely visited their natal homes once they were married. Today, people continue the tradition of visiting their birth parents on the second day of the Lunar New Year. (Remember, these holiday commercials are sometimes real tearjerkers!)


I don't need the calendar to remember that today is Ash Wednesday,

please don't try to wipe the the smudge mark off your friend's forehead.



Hominem te esse memento! Memento mori! -



(Anyway, did you find the coin in the King Cake? )



So begins forty days (remember that the six Sundays between today and Easter don't count as part of the 40 days) of prayer, fasting, contemplation and community service and not the Lentil season, which is marked by forty days of legume eating and gas passing (but that's another story.)


Today is National Drink Wine Day, (this is opposed to National Wine Day, which is May 25th.) Stop yourself - before you make the joke, I know, it's National Drink Wine Day every day in my home.

I can make wine disappear. What’s your superpower?

While, I can't find the basis for the holiday, I have my suspicions: George, the English Duke of Clarence, was convicted of treason against his brother King Edward IV and murdered in the Tower of London on February 18, 1478.



The legend arose that he had been drowned in a barrel of Malmsey wine.


February 18, 1938 -
Bob Hope's film The Big Broadcast of 1938 debuted in New York on this date.



The movie introduced Hope's signature song, Thanks For The Memory.


February 18, 1938 -
If only he had his intercostal clavicle ... ...

The greatest screwball comedy, directed by Howard Hawks, Bringing Up Baby, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant was released on this date.



Katharine Hepburn loved to talk, which caused problems for Howard Hawks when he needed to shoot scenes. When she ignored the assistant director's repeated cries of "Quiet," Hawks just motioned the rest of the crew to stop what they were doing until she realized she was the only one talking. She asked, "What's the matter?" and Hawks said, "You're acting a good part of a parrot, and if you're going to keep on doing it, we'll just sit here and watch you." At that, she took Hawks aside and told him not to talk to her like that because she had a lot of friends working on the film. Hawks called to an electrician on a scaffold overhead and said, "If you had a choice of dropping a lamp on Miss Hepburn or me, who would you drop it on?" The man told Hawks to get out of the way, and Hepburn just said, "I guess I'm wrong," and never misbehaved again.


February 18, 1939 -
Universal Studios released the WC Fields' comedy You Can't Cheat an Honest Man, also starring Edgar Bergen, on this date.



Legend has it that on the set of this film a stagehand was cleaning out W.C. Fields' dressing room and accidentally bumped into a table on which Fields had placed a bottle of whiskey. He caught the bottle before it hit the floor, but the cork had popped out and he couldn't find it. He placed the bottle back on the table and left. Later Fields came back to the dressing room, and a few minutes afterwards stormed out, roaring "Who took the cork out of my lunch?" Whether this story is apocryphal or not, Fields actually uses that line at one point in the film.


February 18, 1962 -
On weekend leave from marine training, The Everly Brothers appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, in full uniform and with regulation cropped hair, singing their new single, Crying In The Rain, on this date.



The song was recorded shortly before Don and Phil Everly were inducted into the Marine Corps Reserves on November 25, 1961. On March 3, the song reached its peak of #6 on the US charts. Don and Phil got out of the Corps on May 24, after six months of service. It was the only Everly Brothers song released during their time in the military.


February 18, 1967 -
The Buckinghams' song Kind of a Drag hits #1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



Kind of a Drag was written by Jim Holvay, who was a friend of the band's from Chicago. It is The Buckingham's only #1 hit, although they peeked into the Top 10 twice more and charted a couple more times after that. Holvay went on to write Don't You Care, Susan and Hey Baby They're Playing Our Song for The Buckinghams.


February 18, 1983 -
Martin Scorsese's black comedy, The King of Comedy, starring Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis and Sandra Bernhard premiered in the US on this date.



Martin Scorsese said later that making this film was an "unsettling" experience, in part because of the embarrassing, bitter material of the script. Scorsese said that he and Robert De Niro may have not worked together again for seven years because making The King of Comedy was so emotionally gruelling.


February 18, 1998 -
In the tradition of Godzilla Vs. Rodan battling it out over Tokyo, The Cure's Robert Smith beats Barbra Streisand on an episode of South Park on this date.



The episode was seen by 5.4 million viewers, a record high viewership for a South Park episode at the time. There was no real reason to note this but I thought you might want to see the clip.


Another episode of ACME's Little Known Animal Facts


Today in History:
February 18, 1268 -
On this date, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword are defeated by Dovmont of Pskov in the Battle of Rakovor.

If you hurry, I believe you can still send flowers or candy to friends and family to commemorate the event.


February 18, 1405 -
Timur Lenk, (also known as Timur the Lame, Tamerlane, Tamerlaine or Mr. Tambourine man,) caught a cold and died on an expedition to China on this date.



While he was the inspiration for many a poet and playwright and known as The Scourge of God, Timur didn't listen to his mother and button his jacket while outside.

Let this be a lesson to us all.


February 18, 1564 -
Michelangelo (Buonarotti), Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer died on this date.



He may have gotten the last laugh as he thought about the number of penises he got to paint on the ceiling of any church.


February 18, 1856 -
The American Party (Know-Nothings) convenes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on this date to nominate its first Presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.

And yes, he does look exactly like Alec Baldwin; thanks for noticing.


February 18, 1930 -
Elm Farm Ollie (known as "Nellie Jay" and post-flight as "Sky Queen") was the first cow to fly in an airplane, doing so on this date, as part of the International Air Exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri.

On the same trip, which covered 72 miles from Bismarck, Missouri, to St. Louis, she also became the first cow milked in flight. (Does that mean that she was the first cow to join the mile high club?) This was done ostensibly to allow scientists to observe midair effects on animals, as well as for publicity purposes. And somehow Charles Lindbergh was involved.



A St. Louis newspaper trumpeted her mission as being "to blaze a trail for the transportation of livestock by air."



Your life is better for knowing this.


February 18, 1930 -
Clyde Tombaugh liked to look at French Postcards. He like to look into his neighbors' windows. When he got tired of that, he started studying photos of the night sky where astronomers predicted a "Planet X" would show up.



Tombaugh ended up discovering the dwarf planet Pluto on this date. He also discovered more than 800 asteroids during his search for "Planet X."

Our Alien Overlords were very wily avoiding Clyde.


February 18, 1933 -
Yoko Ono was born on this date.

What else is there to say?


February 18, 1967 -
J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, died on this date.



His children never even send him flowers.


February 18, 1979 -
Snow fell in Sahara Desert, in Southern Algeria during a storm which lasts about half an hour on this date.

It didn't snow again until January 18, 2012. Perhaps, some of you may wish to move there now.


February 18, 1977 -
The first experimental orbiter of the Space Shuttle System, Enterprise, was a high-altitude glider, launched from the back of a specially modified Boeing 747, on this date.



The first orbiter was originally planned to be named Constitution, but a massive write-in campaign from fans of Star Trek convinced the White House to change its name to Enterprise.


February 18, 2001 -
Race car driver Dale Earnhardt crashed into the wall at the Daytona 500, killing him instantly. His widow files a lawsuit to force the autopsy photos to be sealed, and a Florida law is subsequently passed to prevent them from ever being released.



Earnhardt was the most well known and most successful driver in the history of the sport.


And so it goes.


Also, on a personal note - Happy Birthday Matt.

And so it goes.

Strap in - we have a lot to celebrate

Happy Lunar New Year! The Lunar New Year begins today, and it is the Year of the Horse — but which one?



The Lunar New Year is often celebrated with parades, family gatherings, red envelopes, and (sometimes enthusiastically) the lighting of firecrackers for days afterward. Both the animal sign and the element of your birth year are said to influence your personality and destiny. This year’s elemental sign is Fire — so we are celebrating the Year of the Fire Horse.

It’s also worth noting that many people in China and throughout Asia refer to the holiday as Lunar New Year rather than “Chinese New Year,” since several countries celebrate it, including Vietnam and Korea.



According to a Chinese legend, Nüwa is the goddess who created the world. She created certain animals on different days, hence each day is considered the birthday of the corresponding animal.

Legend also has it that in ancient times, Gautama Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on New Year’s Day. Twelve arrived, and he named a year after each one. He declared that people born in each animal’s year would share some of that animal’s traits. This year is the Year of the Horse. Those born in Horse years are said to be energetic, optimistic, perceptive, witty, talented, and warm-hearted. Notable people born in the Year of the Horse include Nelson Mandela, Margot Robbie, Aretha Franklin, John Legend, Warren Buffett, and President Theodore Roosevelt.



The spirit of the Horse is often associated with vitality and perseverance — qualities long admired in Chinese culture. The Horse symbolizes energy, intelligence, and an outgoing nature. Extremely animated, Horses thrive when they are the center of attention. Always in search of a good time, they keep crowds entertained with humor and quick wit.



In traditional Chinese culture, an especially talented person might be described as a “Qianli Ma” — literally, a horse that can travel a thousand li in a single day. (One li equals roughly 500 meters.) It’s high praise indeed.


Bon temps roulez, mes amis - It's Mardi Gras!









No one needs to disrobe, it's much too cold, we've got plenty of beads, (unless you like to disrobe in public and then, it's between you and your maker.)

Today is also know as Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day, which heralds the beginning of fasting in Lent. On this day (so the historians say) there were feasts of pancakes to use up the supplies of fat, butter and eggs... foods that were forbidden during austere Lent. The word 'shrove' is the past tense of the English verb 'shrive' which means to obtain absolution for one's sins by way of confession and doing penance.



In England there are several celebrations on this day but perhaps the best known one is the Pancake Day Race at Olney in Buckinghamshire which has been held since 1445.



The race came about when a woman cooking pancakes heard the shriving bell summoning her to confession. She ran to church wearing her apron and still holding her frying pan, and thus without knowing it, started a tradition that has lasted for over five hundred years.

Keep flipping them pancakes!


Today is Random Acts of Kindness Day, the name of an unofficial holiday increasingly celebrated around the world by localities or organizations, or nationwide, in order to encourage acts of kindness.

All you need to do is something a simple as hold the door open for someone or say 'good morning' to the counter person giving you your morning cup of coffee.

Then immediately go back to your usually ornery self.


February 17, 1965 -
You are going to be a star.



Joan Rivers made her first guest appearances on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson on NBC-TV on this date.


February 17, 1967 -
The Beatles released Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever on this date.





These songs were intended for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but Capitol Records decided to release the two songs as a single, partly to regain popularity from John Lennon's "The Beatles are bigger than Jesus" comment.


February 17, 1971 -
On this day, Boston native James Taylor made his primetime television debut on the Johnny Cash Show.



Other guest on the show that evening included Neil Young and Linda Ronstadt.


February 17, 1984 -
The Herb Ross musical drama Footloose, starring Kevin Bacon (the guy everyone is six degrees seperated from,) Lori Singer, Dianne Wiest, and John Lithgow, premiered in the US on this date.



During the filming of 3rd Rock from the Sun: Dr. Solomon's Traveling Alien Show, one of the characters playing a circus strongman took John Lithgow aside to share a personal story with him. He confided that he was from a small town in Louisiana where his own father, a Baptist minister, would not allow the kids dance or listen to rock 'n' roll music. When he saw Footloose he explained that Lithgow's 'reverend' was the epitome of his own father. After he brought his father to see the film, without any warning of its plot, his father was so touched by Lithgow's performance, the man said that he was the first of 6 children that were permitted to attend their high school prom.


February 17, 1989 -
The cinematic masterpiece Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter opened in theaters on this date.



In the film, Bill and Ted claim that they need Edward Van Halen in their band to make it better. After the film was released, he jokingly said he would have joined their band if they had asked.


February 17, 1990 -
We are all not worthy - Aerosmith appeared on Saturday Night Live on this date.



They performed the Wayne's World theme song while appearing in the skit as themselves.


February 17, 1995 -
Paramount Pictures heard America cry out that they needed to see The Brady Bunch Movie, directed by Betty Thomas and starring Shelley Long, Gary Cole and Michael McKean and released it in the US on this date.



As he heads off to his business meeting, Carol Brady tells her husband, Mike, to "Go get 'em, Tiger", and then wonders to herself "Tiger, Tiger: what ever happened to that dog?" This is one of many inside jokes about the show. Tiger was the name of the Bradys' dog in the TV series. But, after the first two seasons, the dog simply disappeared without explanation. The original Tiger was actually killed by a truck off-set during the first season. A trained look-a-like dog was brought in to replace him but he had a poor temperament and could not remain focused. Tiger was written off the show after appearing in just eleven episodes and no mention was ever made of what happened to him. However, his dog house was left in the back yard for the remainder of the series.


February 17, 2011 -
Welcome our new computer overlords - IBM's Watson computer beats Jeopardy's best contestants ever, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, on this date.



The researchers acknowledged that Watson had benefited from something they called the “buzzer factor.” Both Mr. Jennings and Mr. Rutter are accomplished at anticipating the light that signals it is possible to “buzz in,” and can sometimes get in with virtually zero lag time. The danger is to buzz too early, in which case the contestant is penalized and “locked out” for roughly a quarter of a second. Watson, on the other hand, does not anticipate the light, but has a weighted scheme that allows it, when it is highly confident, to hit the buzzer in as little as 10 milliseconds, making it very hard for humans to beat. When it was less confident, it took longer to buzz in. In the second round, Watson beat the others to the buzzer in 24 out of 30 Double Jeopardy questions.


February 17, 1997 -
Mike Nesmith directed himself and the other original Monkees in Hey, Hey, It's the Monkees, a one-hour comedy special which premiered on ABC, on this date.



The special assumes the Monkees have been living in their beach house all the years since the series ended and have continued having adventures. This one is episode number 781 - A Lizard Sunning Itself On A Rock.


Today's moment of Zen


February 17, 1600 -
Roman philosopher and mathematician Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake at Campo di Fiore in Rome, likely because of his advocating the theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun.



His death at the hands of Roman Inquisition is thought to have convinced Galileo to recant his own theory of a moving Earth. The people living around the Palatine Hills always expected the Roman Inquisition.


Celebrated French dramatist and comedian Moliere collapsed on stage and died on February 17, 1673. It is said that he was wearing green, and because of that, there is a superstition that green brings bad luck to actors. As an actor, he was not allowed by the laws of the time to be buried in the sacred ground of a cemetery.



His wife Armande asked the King Louis XIV to allow a "normal" funeral celebrated at night. The king agreed, and Moliere was buried in a part of the cemetery reserved for unbaptized infants. In some accounts of his death, it is said that over 800 people attended his "secret" funeral.


February 17, 1869 –
The dream that changed the world - Dmitri Mendeleev began creating what we now call The Periodic Table.



On the night of February 16, 1869, it is said, Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian Chemist and owner of the wildest beard east of Vienna, had a dream in which he saw almost all of the 65 known elements arrayed in a grand table. The following morning, he set to work organizing the elements on blank cards.



He carried on for three days and nights, continually arranging and rearranging the cards in various sequences until he noticed a pattern in the elements in order of increasing atomic mass; their properties were repeated. Because the properties repeated themselves regularly, or periodically, on his chart, the system became known as the periodic table.


A bomb exploded in the dining room of St. Petersburg's Winter Palace on February 17, 1880. Tsar Alexander II survived. Being late for supper, the Tsar was not harmed, although 67 other people were killed or wounded. The dining room floor was also heavily damaged.

While it is often said that promptness is the politeness of kings; sometimes being a tad tardy can save you.


February 17, 1904 -
The original two-act version Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini, premiered on this date.



It did not go so well, lasting just one performance. One critic refereed to the performance as a "diabetic opera, the result of an automobile accident." Puccini revised the opera, splitting the second act into two acts and making other changes. On May 28, 1904, the new version was performed in Brescia and was a huge success.


February 17, 1933 -
The first issue of the weekly news magazine, Newsweek, was published on this date.

The issue, all 32 pages of it, could be purchased for a dime, but you could get it discounted for a year's subscription at $4.


February 17, 1958 -
Pope Pius XII declared Saint Clare of Assisi (1193 - 1253), the patron saint of television, on this date.

Given that the meager pittance I have called a salary that has come from my work in television, having a saint to intervene for you comes in handy.


February 17, 1994 -
The decomposing corpse of Zviad Gamsakhurdia, first president of the Republic of Georgia, was exhumed from a temporary grave in Djikhaskari on this date. His wife refused an autopsy, but western journalists noted a bullet wound in the side of Zviad's head. Officially listed as suicide, the wife also claims he was murdered. Another government minister oddly states the death was by cancer with the head shot administered post-mortem.

Note to self: don't seek cancer treatment in the Republic of Georgia or the state of Georgia, for that matter.

Avoid getting cancer, if at all possible.



And so it goes

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity.

It's Generic Executive Office Holder of the Government Day.



So let's hear it for all the generic Presidents.


Today is the Feast of Saint Juliana of Nicomedia. She refused to marry a Roman official, so he had her roasted in flames, then dipped into boiling oil before finally being beheaded, which seems rather harsh even for Roman times.

Once again, Springsteen was right - it's hard being a saint (in the city.)


February 16, 1935 -
The Phantom, created by Lee Falk (also creator of Mandrake the Magician), makes his first appearance in a comic strip on this date.

The Phantom is credited as being the first "costumed superhero", i.e. the first crimefighter to wear the skintight costume attributed to comic book superheroes.


February 16, 1940 -
A truncated version of A Chump at Oxford (the second to last Laurel and Hardy feature) was released on this date.



The short version of the film was originally in four reels, a "streamliner" designed to compete with theaters' new double feature concept. Hal Roach produced only a few of these hybrids, and added the dinner party sequence later to bring it up to it's feature length.


February 16, 1956 -
The film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical Carousel, starring Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones, premiered on this date.



At the time that this film was released, it was not successful at the box office, but the film's soundtrack album did become a national best seller.


February 16, 1957 -
Ingmar Bergman's classic take on life, death and a chess-playing grim reaper, The Seventh Seal, starring Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand, and Bibi Andersson, premiered in Sweden on this date.





The inspiration for this film was said to be drawn from the period films of Akira Kurosawa, of which Ingmar Bergman was a big fan. Bergman credited the film with helping him overcome his crippling fear of death. Because the film dealt so overtly with the subject, he found it a highly cathartic experience.


February 16, 1962 -
The influential sci-fi short film, La Jetée (told almost entirely with B & W still photography,) directed by Chris Marker premiered in France on this date.



This short film was the inspiration for the Terry Gilliam film 12 Monkeys.


February 16, 1964 -
The Beatles appeared for the second time on the Ed Sullivan Show on this date.



The Beatles performed six songs: She Loves You, This Boy, All My Loving, I Saw Her Standing There, From Me To You and I Want To Hold Your Hand. The Beatles received $25,000 for their appearance; half of what Elvis got for his.


February 16, 1967 -
The titanic battle of the man girdles and outrageous toupees began on this date.

The Star Trek episode, Space Seed, premiered on NBC-TV on this date. In it, the crew re-awaken a ship of Augments from Earth’s eugenics war during the 1990s, including their leader, Khan Noonien Singh.



Ricardo Montalban was always the first choice for Khan. He had been suggested by casting director Joseph D'Agosta, who was not looking to cast an actor of a particular ethnic background due to Gene Roddenberry's vision for the series; Roddenberry wanted to show his perceived 23rd century values by not requiring any specific ethnicities when casting actors in guest roles.


February 16, 1969 -
The epic Soviet bio pix, Andrei Rublev, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, starring Anatoly Solonitsyn and Ivan Lapikov, premiered in Moscow (after a limited release in 1966 where upon it was heavily censored,) on this date. The film, even it's truncated version, is considered one of the greatest films of all time.





In this film, director Andrei Tarkovsky drew on his own creative development and religious struggles as a way to interrogate Christianity as an axiom of Russia's historical identity.


February 16, 1974 -
Bob Dylan's fourteenth studio album, Planet Waves, went to No. 1 on the Billboard Charts, (his first No. 1 album,) on this date.



The albun was Dylan's first studio recording in nearly four years and he reunited with The Band.


February 16, 1975 -
My future is in your hands. I am really happy to be back. No, I am thrilled to be back.



Cher stepped out sans Sonny to star in her own, when the music variety series Cher premiered on CBS-TV on this date.


February 16, 1982 -
The Jam had two of their singles, A Town Called Malice, and Precious, at No.1 on the UK singles chart on this date.





The title of Nevil Shute's A Town Like Alice inspired the title, but the inspiration for the song came from Paul Weller's friend Dave Waller by means of describing urban life. The song is about unemployment in a working town and Paul Weller confessed, "It could have been written about any suburban town, but it was in fact written about my hometown of Woking."


Word of the Day


Today in History:
February 16, 600 - (we can probably assume this date was correctly denoted. Let's hope, since this involves a pope, most of the people there were not involved in a orgy and had the time to write this down.)
Pope Gregory the Great declared "God bless you" to be the correct response to a sneeze.



It was once thought that sneezing was an omen of death, since many dying people fell into sneezing fits.

So now you know why.


February 16, 1899 -
Félix François Faure, President of France and the owner of the most audacious mustache in the late 19th century,

died suddenly from a massive heart attack in his private offices while in the act of some sort of sexual congress with the notable courtesan, Marguerite Steinheil on this date.

Apparently when Faure reached his petit mort, he had his grand mort. A probably apocryphal story, listed as fact by many sources, is that M. Le President died with his hands gripping Miss Steinheil's head and an anxious government official nearly 'brained' her trying to remove the hysterical lady from the vise-like grip of his 'cold dead hands.'



The French statesmen and future president, George Clemenceau famously said, after hearing of Faure's death, "...il voulait être César, il ne fut que Pompée," which is incredibly witty and very filthy for a family newspaper (go look it up yourself.)


February 16, 1918 -
Lithuania declared its independence from Russia on this date. Independence lasted until World War II.

It was such a successful declaration that they declared their independence again in 1990.


February 16, 1921 -
Vera-Ellen (nee Vera-Ellen Westmeier Rohe), actress and possible anorexia nervosa sufferer (there is a raging debate on the internet about whether or not she was - and I am still legally obligated to state this,) was born on this date.



Vera went to the same Cincinnati ballroom dance studio as a child as Doris Day. Their parents used to carpool together to the dance studio.


February 16, 1923 -
Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter opened King Tut's tomb, revealing one of the most well-preserved treasures from the ancient world on this date.



While it has been frequently reported that a curse killed 13 of the 20 people present at the opening of the tomb, there was no curse and no unusual death patterns occurred.



Wait a minute, what's that lurking in the shadows?


February 16, 1935 -
Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono, politician, musical artist and producer was born on this date.



Little known facts about Salvatore - Bono was the godfather of Anthony Kiedis and in later years dabbled with Scientology, although his last wife (of whom he had four including Cher,) said that he was trying to distance himself from the religion at the time of his death.

Kids, once again we have to repeat - do not mess around with Scientology.


February 16, 1937 -
Nylon material was patented (U.S. patent 2,071,250) by Wallace H. Carothers, a researcher for DuPont on this date. He also helped to produce the first synthetic rubber, Neoprene, and was instrumental in the development of synthetic silks.



Sadly, Carothers committed suicide after a long battle with depression by drinking lemon juice laced with cyanide (not a cocktail that I would recommend.)


February 16, 1959 -
Failed baseball player Fidel Castro was sworn in as President For Life of Cuba after having led the revolution that removed Fulgenico Batista. At the time, Cuba was a nation plagued by poverty, racked by corruption, and held in thrall by the military force of its leader.

During his first year of rule, 500 were put to the firing squad, an RBI record any dictator would be proud of.


February 16, 1990 -
The public needs art - and it is the responsibility of a 'self-proclaimed artist' to realize that the public needs art, and not to make bourgeois art for a few and ignore the masses



Keith Haring, artist/cartoonist, died of AIDS-related complications at 31 on this date.



And so it goes.