Hang in there

Today is the 12th day of the Lunar New Year. The twelfth day marks a transitional period, shifting the focus from intimate family gatherings to community-wide preparations for the Lantern Festival (the 15th and final day of the Spring Festival).

It is a day of quiet anticipation, when the intense festivities of the first week begin to soften into more organized preparations for the New Year’s closing celebrations. Not to be pedantic, but while the Spring Festival officially lasts 15 days, the celebrations actually begin on New Year’s Eve - making it effectively 16 days. You could even argue that the holiday season starts earlier, in the twelfth lunar month with the Laba Festival (traditionally observed on the eighth day of lunar December), extending the festive period to more than a month of celebration.



According to some folk beliefs, this is the time when the divine beings who descended to the mortal world for New Year’s Eve begin their ascent back to heaven, a return sometimes referred to as Tiangong Huícháo. Families may perform brief farewell rituals with incense or candles to express gratitude and bid them a respectful send-off.



Since New Year’s Eve, people have been attending feasts and enjoying rich, oily foods. By the twelfth day, many have been indulging in heavy celebratory dishes for nearly two weeks. As a result, it has become customary from this day onward to shift toward lighter, often vegetarian meals to restore balance.

Because of this prolonged period of indulgence, the twelfth day has humorously acquired the nickname “Diarrhea Day” (yes, really). After so much festive excess, the body sometimes demands a reset.


February 28, 1936 -
Wife vs. Secretary starring, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, and Myrna Loy premiered on this date.



Please refer to the flowchart provided to follow along - This was the fifth of six films paring Gable and Harlow, and the fourth picture for Gable and Loy starring together. This was the first film Loy and Harlow appeared together. They would be together again for Libeled Lady in 1936.


February 28, 1945 -
The film directorial debut of Elia Kazan, an adaptation of the Betty Smith's novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, starring Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, James Dunn, Lloyd Nolan, Peggy Ann Garner, Ted Donaldson, and James Gleason, opened on this date.



After being so impressed by the dailies of the film, executives at Fox wanted to re-shoot the entire movie in Technicolor, but Elia Kazan refused.


February 28, 1953 -
One of the greatest animated shorts of all time, Duck Amuck, directed by Chuck Jones and starring Daffy Duck, opened on this date.



Originally, Chuck Jones was to appear in live action as the mystery animator at the end, but it was decided late in production that it should be Bugs Bunny.


February 28, 1963 -
Patsy Cline made the final TV appearance on this date, when she's on The Glenn Reeves Show, performing San Antonio Rose and I Fall To Pieces.



She died tragically in a plane crash just five days later at the age of 30.


February 28, 1970 -
Simon and Garfunkel's song Bridge over Troubled Water reached number one on this date and stayed there for the next six weeks.



Simon wrote this song with just two verses, considering the song "a little hymn." Garfunkel and producer Roy Halee heard it as more epic, and convinced him to write a third verse, which Paul did in the studio (the "Sail on, Silvergirl part"). This was very unusual for Simon, as he usually took a long time writing his lyrics. Simon's "little hymn" got a grand production, and after hearing it, Paul thought it was too long, too slow and too orchestral to be a hit. Clive Davis at Columbia Records is the one who heard the commercial appeal of the song, and insisted they market it like crazy and use it as the album title.


February 28, 1983 -
The 256th and final episode of M*A*S*H, Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, aired on CBS-TV on this date.



It's the second time the phrase "son-of-a-bitch" was said, uncensored, on the series. Both times it was said by Hawkeye. The first time was in Guerrilla My Dreams, which was also the first time the curse was ever uttered on network television. Hawkeye said it once before, in The Interview, but it was bleeped, as it would have been in a 1951 interview.



February 28, 1983 -
Produced by Steve Lillywhite, U2 released their third studio album War, on this date.



It's their first album to sell a million copies in America.


February 28, 1986 -
The Brat-Pack Classic, Pretty In Pink, starring Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, Jon Cryer and James Spader premiered on this date.



The filmmakers wanted Blane, to be "a hunky, square-jawed jock," but Molly Ringwald wasn't attracted to that sort of guy. Ringwald had some say in the casting, and after Andrew McCarthy auditioned, she told John Hughes and Howard Deutch her thoughts on him. "That's the kind of guy I would fall in love with." They thought he was a "twerpy guy", and weren't interested, but Ringwald pushed for his casting.


February 28, 1989 -
America started following the goings on at with Minnesota State University Screaming Eagles football team when Coach, starring Craig T. Nelson, Shelley Fabares, Jerry Van Dyke, and Bill Fagerbakke premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



The Coach theme song was performed by the Iowa State University Cyclone Football "Varsity" Marching Band. The Iowa State band was the winner of a national contest for the right to play the piece for TV.


February 28, 1992 -
An adult animated series Fish Police, produced by Hanna-Barbera and featured the voice of John Ritter, Héctor Elizondo, Ed Asner, Jonathan Winters, Tim Curry, Robert Guillaume, Buddy Hackett, and Megan Mullally that debuted on CBS on this date.



Lasted for only one season for which six episodes were produced. Only the first three episodes were shown in the U.S. market, before the show was cancelled and pulled off the air,

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


Today in History:
February 28, 202 BC -
Liu Bang, who rose from obscurity to be crowned as Emperor Gaozu, on this date, at the Xianyang Palace in modern-day Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China.



This marked the beginning of the Han Dynasty, one of the most significant and influential dynasties in Chinese history, lasting from 202 BC to 220 AD.

Once again, what the hell do you care.


February 28, 1574 -
Two impertinent heretics were burned at the stake in Mexico at a spectacular auto-da-fe comparable to those in Spain.

The two are the first victims of the Inquisition in the New World, dying for their heretical crimes of...Lutheranism.


February 28, 1844 -
Julia Gardiner met her future husband, President John Tyler, on this date.

The USS Princeton departed Alexandria, Virginia on a pleasure and trial trip down the Potomac with President John Tyler, his Cabinet and approximately two hundred guests on board. Upon the final firing of Captain Robert F. Stockton's Peacemaker (a newly designed cannon), the defective gun finally burst, instantly killing Secretary of State Abel Upshur; Secretary of the Navy Thomas Gilmer; Captain Beverly Kennon, Chief of the Bureau of Construction, Equipment and Repairs; Virgil Maxcy of Maryland, Charge d'Affaires to Belgium, 1837–42; David Gardiner of New York, the father of Julia Gardiner; and the President's valet, a black slave named Armistead.



It also injured about 20 people, including Captain Stockton (who received severe powder burns on his face, and all the hair on his head was burned off.) A Court of Inquiry exonerated Capt. Stockton due to his political influence (he supported Tyler’s campaign), blaming the explosion on John Ericsson, designer of the ships' engines (despite the fact Ericsson had nothing to do with the design of the Peacemaker gun. Capt. Stockton, in fact, stole the design plans from Ericsson, got a key element of the design wrong in the process, and passed them off as his own), and "bad luck". When Julia Gardiner, who was aboard, found out her father had died in the explosion she fainted into President Tyler's arms.

Isn't love grand.


February 28, 1905 -
Jane Lathrop Stanford, the wife of the late Leland Stanford, died of suspected arsenic poisoning at the Moana Hotel in Honolulu. A coroner’s jury confirmed the result.

Her body was returned to the mainland under the care of David Starr Jordan, the president of Stanford Univ. An examination by Stanford physicians claimed no trace of strychnine and set heart attack as cause of death.

A will signed 19 months earlier had left the bulk of her $30 million estate to Stanford University. After 100 years, the only thing certain about the case - Stanford did in fact died of strychnine poisoning and somebody got away with murder.


February 28, 1915 –
The freedom of any society varies proportionately with the volume of its laughter.







Samuel Joel Zero Mostel, (blacklisted by the HUAC in the '50s), larger than life actor and comedian, was born on this date.


February 28, 1939 -
On July 31, 1931, while working on the second edition of New International Dictionary for the G. and C. Merriam Company, Austin M. Patterson, Merriam-Webster's chemistry editor, sent a slip of paper reading "D or d, cont./density." it was meant as a note to say the the letters D or d could be used as the abbreviation for the word Density. The typo word got past proofreaders and appeared on page 771 of the dictionary around 1934.



The ghost word "dord" was not discovered to have made it into the dictionary until this date in the New International Dictionary. The word was a great source of embarrassment for the G. and C. Merriam Company, since it's not actually a word. For some reason though, they never go around to kicking it out of the dictionary until 1947.

(But please feel free to use it in Scrabble, citing the above mentioned page as proof of it's existence.)


February 28, 1948 -
The first Broadway show I ever heard was the recording of Carousel, and it was a very vivid experience.





Bernadette Lazzara (Bernadette Peters), Actress/Singer was born on this date.


February 28, 1954 -
The first NTSC standard color television sets were sold on this date. The first set was made by Westinghouse, and sold for $1295 (approximately one-half the cost of a new car.)

Only 30 of these sets were sold by April of that year and only 500 sets were ever be built. On March 25th, RCA began shipping its mass-produced all-electronic compatible color set, for $1,000, and later in the year, a still cheaper model that would secure the company’s dominance in the television market.


February 28, 1968 -
Singer and early 60s heartthrob Frankie Lymon was found dead from a heroin overdose next to his syringe, in his grandmother's New York City apartment, on this date. Years later, three women, Zola Taylor, Elizabeth Waters and Elmira Eagle, each claim to be Lymon's rightful widow and sue to stake out a piece of his estate.



SO, I'm hoping the answer to the question, Why do fools fall in love? - isn't so that they can O.D. and have three women pick over the bones of their rotting corpse.


February 28, 1979 -
Mr. Ed, the talking horse, died. This was not the horse who actually starred on the TV show, but another horse who did publicity work as Mr. Ed.



The original Mr. Ed (Bamboo Harvester) died in 1970.

But what do you care.


February 28, 1986 -
Prime Minister of Sweden Olof Palme was assassinated as he left a movie theater in Stockholm on this date.



In 1996 South African former police officer Eugene de Kock said that Craig Williamson, a South African spy, was involved in the murder. In 1997 lawyer Pelle Svensson said that his client, Lars Tingstrom, wrote a statement on his deathbed in prison in 1993 that he committed the killing. The family of Christer Pettersson, a drug addict and alcoholic, was convinced that he was the killer. In 1999, Abdullah Ocalan in Turkey suggested that a rival PKK organization killed Olaf Palme.

It seems everybody wanted to get into the act.


February 28, 1993 -
Agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco used armed force attempting to serve Branch Davidian leader David Koresh with a search warrant (one with no actual evidence of any illegal activity whatsoever), in what the BATF viewed as a publicity stunt to improve their image.

While the agents carefully coordinated the raid with eleven different media outlets, something apparently tipped off Koresh and as these things usual happen - things do not go well: six Davidians and four ATF agents were killed.



The warrant instead could have been served peacefully, while Koresh did his daily morning jog.


February 28, 2013 –
Pope Benedict XVI resigned as the pope of the Catholic Church, on this date.



Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger became the first pope to resign since 1415. At 94, the pope emeritus tenaciously clings to the buttocks of life.


February 28, 2014 -
Ukrainian authorities have accused Russia of deploying troops and occupying government buildings in the region of Crimea. Russia was accused of sending armed troops to the Sevastopol airport and attempting to provoke Ukraine into armed conflict.



This was just the first of many controversial moves made by Russia during the Ukraine government crisis.

Now more than ever, please keep the people of Ukraine and their struggles in your thoughts today.


Before you go, please note -



There are 20 days until Spring!



(Christmas is in 300 days)



And so it goes

Be mindful when you use the facilities

The eleventh day of the Lunar New Year is traditionally known as the day to welcome Zigu Shen (the “Purple Lady,” the “Lady of the Latrine,” or the “Third Daughter of the Latrine”). According to legend, Zigu was a concubine of a wealthy man in ancient China. Out of jealousy, the man’s wife killed her in the toilet. Zigu came to represent women who suffered under oppression in feudal society and became a deeply relatable figure for women living within patriarchal systems.

Rituals in her honor often involved chanting to put her spirit at ease, acknowledging her suffering and seeking her guidance as a deity of the domestic sphere.

The figure of Zigu is sometimes associated with other tragic women from history, most notably Lady Qi, a concubine of the founding emperor of the Han dynasty, Liu Bang. After his death, Lady Qi was brutally mutilated and thrown into a privy by Empress Lü Zhi. Later generations, moved by sympathy for her fate, commemorated her as a deity. According to some versions of the legend, the Heavenly God took compassion on Zigu Shen and appointed her the goddess of the toilet. (I remain somewhat ambivalent about the reward she received in this arrangement.)



Traditionally, the eleventh day of the Lunar New Year is also when a wife’s father invites his son-in-law to a meal at home. This custom provides an opportunity for bonding between the two families. The feast often makes use of surplus food and high-quality dishes originally prepared for the Jade Emperor’s Birthday (the ninth day). Using these leftovers is considered both efficient and auspicious, neatly captured by the idiom yi ju liang dé (“to kill two birds with one stone”).

As the Lantern Festival (the fifteenth day) approaches, families begin purchasing lanterns and preparing ingredients for tang yuan (sweet glutinous rice balls), the traditional dessert served during the festival.


It's National Kahlua Day! Kahlua, for those under 21 or Mormon, is a rich, creamy, coffee based alcoholic liqueur from Mexico.



this will be on the test (and Kahlua can send me my check for the advertising space I provided.)



(As always, celebrate as you see fit.)


February 27, 1920 -
A film that we're somewhat familiar with here, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, opened in Germany on this date.



The final look and feel of the film was based as much on low-budget practicalities as it was on creative inspiration and expressionism. Electricity was strictly rationed in post-WWI Germany at the time the film was being shot, so director Robert Wiene ended the film simply painting light beams on backdrops. Shooting on severely confined sets forced him to use unusual camera angles


February 27, 1937 -
An early Porky Pig cartoon, drawn by Tex Avery, Picador Porky, premiered on this date.



This is the first Warner Bros. cartoon to feature Mel Blanc's voice.


February 27, 1938 -
A Looney Tunes short What Price Porky, directed by Bob Clampett, featuring Porky Pig in a parody of the film What Price Glory?, opened on this date.



The warfare shown here was a mix of that from WW1 (trenches, dirigibles, gas, no hen's land (no man's land) and new technology (airplanes and modern ships, including an aircraft carrier). WW2 was not far off, which would significantly change how conflicts were fought.


February 27, 1954 -
A Merrie Melodies short, No Barking, directed by Chuck Jones, and featuring Tweety Bird, Claude Cat, and Frisky Puppy debuted on this date.



Just before Claude is hit by the elevated train, a billboard is seen that reads DON FOSTER FOR MAYOR. Don Foster was one of the animators.


February 27, 1968 -
CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite's commentary on the progress of the Vietnam War solidified President Lyndon B. Johnson's decision not to seek reelection in 1968. Cronkite, who had been at Hue in the midst of the Tet Offensive earlier in February, said: "Who won and who lost in the great Tet Offensive against the cities? I m not sure." He concluded: "It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out...will be to negotiate, not as victors but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could."



Johnson called the commentary a turning point, saying that if he had "lost Cronkite," he'd "lost Mr. Average Citizen." On March 31, President Johnson announced he would not seek reelection.


February 27, 1971 -
Janis Joplin's album released three months after her drug overdose, Pearl hits #1 in the US, where it stays for nine weeks, on this date.



Pearl was Janis Joplin's most commercially successful album, yet it only reached #50 in the UK. Pearl was one of Joplin's nicknames.


February 27, 1979 -
The short-lived anthology series Cliffhangers, starring Susan Anton, Geoffrey Scott, and Michael Nouri, premiered on this date. (The series only aired 10 episodes.)



Of the three short weekly installments (Stop Susan Williams, The Secret Empire, and The Curse of Dracula,) that made up the series Clilffhangers, The Curse of Dracula was the only one of the three stories to be completed by the time Cliffhangers was cancelled.


February 27, 1980 -
During a live telecast from Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, the only Grammy for Best Disco Recording ever, was awarded to Gloria Gaynor, Dino Fekaris and Freddie Perren (the producers of the song) for I Will Survive.



Gaynor told Billboard magazine that it doesn't bother her in the least that she will forever be tied to her signature ode. "From the beginning I recognized it was a timeless lyric that everyone could relate to," said Gaynor, "so I don't get tired of singing it. I'm always freshening it up; changing the beat, the lyrics, modernizing the arrangement - I've even stuck a hip-hop section in the middle of it. I become 295% grade A ham when I do this song because people still love it."


February 27, 1981 -
The Who release their first single since the death of their drummer, Keith Moon, You Better You Bet, with Kenney Jones, formerly of the Faces, on the drums, on this date.



The black-and-white music video features the band and keyboardist John Bundrick playing the song onstage. It was the fourth clip played upon MTV's launch on August 1,1981 and was also the 54th video clip to be aired on the fledgling music channel, making it the first video to be shown on MTV more than once.


February 27, 1997 -
The teen drama Some Kind of Wonderful, directed by Howard Deutch and starring Eric Stoltz, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Lea Thompson, opened on this date.



Molly Ringwald was offered the role of Amanda Jones, but refused believing the character was too similar to her role in The Breakfast Club as well as having a desire to take on other characters to avoid being typecast. Because of this, this marked the end of her successful relationship with John Hughes, a decision she has stated she regrets as she was typecast anyway.


February 27, 1998 -
New Line Cinema released the influential (but little seen) science fiction film Dark City, directed by Alex Proyas and starring Rufus Sewell, William Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland, and Jennifer Connelly, in the U.S., on this date.



Although Alex Proyas wrote the original screenplay, very little of the plot was retained (besides the fact that the lead is wanted for murders). Lem Dobbs wrote the final draft and reformed the plot as it appears in the film with the exception of the special effects sequences. Although the powers of the Strangers were alluded to they would never actually be depicted. David S. Goyer was hired to write the shooting script when they had secured a bigger budget. He added all the action scenes that appear in the film and which show explicitly the operating background of the Dark City.


February 27, 2000 -
Another bio-pix mini-series about America's favorite band, The Beach Boys: An American Family began aired on ABC on this date.



During scenes in which Brian Wilson (Frederick Weller) is demoing I Get Around and In My Room, the real Brian Wilson contributes the vocal, recorded specifically for this film. However, an uncredited Jeffrey Foskett, a member of Wilson's touring band, provides the high notes during the In My Room demo.


Another unimportant moment in history


Today in History:
On this date in 280 A.D. (or another date or year, again remember lead cups and constant orgies, do not good calendar keepers make), Emperor Constantine the Great was born.



Constantine took half the Roman Empire and moved it to Byzantium, a little village which he built up into such a magnificent city that it was eventually named after him: Istanbul.

And it's nobody's business but the Turks.


February 27, 1859 -
Censured Congressman Dan Sickles of New York (who escorting a known prostitute into State chambers) shot and killed Philip Barton Key, son of Francis Scott Key and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. The younger Key was having an affair with the congressman's wife at the time.



He was tried on a charge of murder, but was acquitted after a sensational trial involving the first use of the insanity defense in U.S. history.



An interesting aside: Sickle went on to become a Union general and was involved in some of the bloodiest fighting at Gettysburg and lost his own right leg in the battle. He had the leg preserved and sent to Washington D.C., where it was exhibited in a little wooden coffin at the Medical Museum of the Library of Congress. Sickles frequently visited it himself.


February 27, 1902 -
John Steinbeck, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose novels included The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and Of Mice and Men, was born in Salinas, California on this date in 1902.



He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception.” Before his death at age 66, he authored 27 books, including 16 novels, six non-fiction books, and two collections of short stories.


February 27, 1932 -
I am a very committed wife. And I should be committed too - for being married so many times.



Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, actress and serial bride was born on this date.


February 27, 1933 -
The Reichstag conveniently went up in flames on this date. A mad Dutchman who was arrested at the scene, Marinus van der Lubbe, may have been partially responsible but if this is so, he is likely someone's patsy. The Nazi Party benefit greatly from the subsequent crack down, and it's suspected that SA stormtroopers set things up for van der Lubbe.



Another important life lesson - bad Germans in leather shorts, beer halls and matches do not mix.


On February 27, 1939, Neville Chamberlain, everyone's favorite legume supporter, recognized General Franco's government on this date. The Fascist regime was on it's way to achieved victory in the Spanish Civil War.

Ernest Hemingway had been defeated.

The war had been so successful that Europe decided to have the Second World War, which was every bit as exciting as the Spanish Civil War but with more geography and submarines.

General Franco and Ernest Hemingway are still heroically dead.


February 27, 1951 -
The 22nd Amendment to the American Constitution was ratified by Minnesota, the 36th state out of 48 to ratify, thereby making it the law of the land. The 22nd Amendment states that no person shall be president of the United States more than twice unless they're Harry Truman. (Someone please explain this to the current occupant of The White House)



Really, look it up - it says that.

In the graphic novel Watchmen, a crushing U.S. victory in the Vietnam War leads to the repeal of the 22nd Amendment and the repeated reelection of President Richard M. Nixon, who still serves as of 1985, the year in which Watchmen is set.

Similarly, in the time-travel movie Back to the Future Part II, an alternate timeline newspaper headline, before changing to report Ronald Reagan considering a second term, reports Nixon considering a fifth term. In a Saturday Night Live sketch, Dan Aykroyd portrayed Richard Nixon writing to random congressmen, asking for repeal of the amendment.


February 27, 1992 -
Trying to get the lid off her McDonald's coffee to add cream and sugar, 79-year-old Stella Liebeck accidentally splashes the 180-degree liquid on herself, causing third-degree burns to the thighs, genitals, and buttocks.



After skin graft surgery and weeks of recuperation, Liebeck asks McDonald's to turn down the temperature of their coffee and pay $20,000 to defray her hospital bills. McDonald's told the old lady go suck an egg, as they had done for a decade of similar burn claims. Ultimately, a jury awards Liebeck $2.9 million in the resulting lawsuit, which immediately triggers a renewed call for legislative tort reform and makes that one expense cup of coffee.


February 27, 2003 -
All of our neighborhoods were a little less beautiful when our good neighbor, Fred McFeely Rogers died on this date.



But let's make the most of this beautiful day.



And so it goes.

Every block of stone has a statue inside it

In Chinese, shí, meaning “ten,” and shí, meaning “stone,” share the same pronunciation. Thus, the tenth day of the Lunar New Year is traditionally considered the Birthday of the Stones, in the hope of shí quán shí mi - “everything in perfect completeness.” In ancient China, stones were regarded as the foundation of the Earth. Therefore, the Birthday of the Stones is synonymous with celebrating the Earth’s birthday. Today is also known as “Shi Bu Dong,” meaning “Do Not Move Stones.”

On this day, it is forbidden to cut into a mountain for rock or to build a house with stone, as doing so is believed to bring misfortune to the crops. Families burn incense and candles for the stones and offer pancakes to the God of Stone.



ACME Construction would like to wish everyone a lucky and prosperous Lunar New Year. As tradition forbids moving any stone today - including stone rollers, stone mills, and stone mortars - remember: with ACME, when you need something stuck in the ground, it stays put.



The day follows the Birthday of the Jade Emperor, and there is often an abundance of leftover food from the celebration. On the tenth lunar day, families may finish the vegetables, animal sacrifices, cakes, and fruit prepared for the ceremony, extending the feasting in honor of the Jade Emperor.



Tomorrow will be the eleventh day, and the day after that, the twelfth. Are you really still celebrating?

But by all means, continue to drink with wild abandon.


February 26, 1944 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears, directed by Chuck Jones, and starring Bugs Bunny and Three Bears family (Pa, Ma, and Junyer Bear), debuted on this date.



Throughout most of the first half of the cartoon, there is a nude photo of a woman visible on the wall calendar in the background, most notably in the opening scene and when the titular Three Bears are gathered around the dining table to eat their carrot soup.


February 26, 1947 -
This Looney Tunes short Mexican Joyride, directed by Arthur Davis, and starring Daffy Duck was released on this date



During one scene when Daffy screams in front of the audience after a harrowing experience with the local cuisine that literally sets his mouth afire, there is a fireplace, complete with wood on fire, visible in his throat.


February 26, 1949 -
This Looney Tunes short Mississippi Hare, directed by Chuck Jones, and starring Bugs Bunny was released on this date.



Includes a rare scene where Bugs has 5 fingers: When he is rolling the coin across his hand at the first meeting of Colonel Shuffle.


February 26, 1966 -
While Nancy Sinatra was on the same record label (Reprise) as her famous father, her record label was going to drop her because her first few singles flopped. Things changed when they teamed her with producer Lee Hazlewood. These Boots Are Made for Walkin' topped the charts on this date.



It was her first hit. In 1996, Nancy Sinatra gave a pair of white go-go boots she wore to promote this song to the Hard Rock Cafe in Beverly Hills.


February 26, 1967 –
Gene Kelly starred in Jack and the Beanstalk on NBC (produced by Hanna-Barbara) on this date. It was the first TV special to combine live action and animation.



Dick Beals, who was 39 years old provided the singing voice for 8-year-old Bobby Riha's character, Jack.


February 26, 1979 -
The shortlived sitcom, Flatbush, premiered on CBS-TV on this date.



The show was so disliked that CBS switchboards were flood with negative comments about the show that night. Only three of the episodes aired.


February 26, 1979 -
NBC hoped to capitalize on their previous series Columbo, by casting Kate Mulgrew, as his never seen wife, now a crime solving reporter in Mrs. Columbo, co-starring Henry Jones, premiered on this date.



The series was originally about the exploits of the crime reporter wife of Lt. Columbo, but when the series couldn't capitalize on the popular earlier series, producers changed Mrs. Columbo's name to "Callahan" and soon, all references to the fictional cop were removed.


February 26, 1988 -
John Water's great, albeit more mainstream feature (Water's first PG-rated film), Hairspray, opened on this date.



Ricki Lake began rapidly losing weight due to the intense dance lessons she had to take for the film. She reportedly had to "eat like crazy" in order to stay plump.


February 26, 1988 -
The science fiction film Alien from L.A., directed by Albert Pyun and starring Kathy Ireland was released in US theaters, on this date.



And the only reason to note it is because the MST3K guys spoofed it.


February 26, 2011 –
Lady Gaga single, Born This Way hit No. #1 on the Billboard Charts, on this date.



Gaga performed this song at the Grammy Awards in 2011. The Grammys don't let performers do new songs very often at the ceremonies, but Gaga was the hottest thing going at the time. Her album The Fame Monster took home the Best Pop Vocal Album award later in the show, and when she accepted the award, she thanked Whitney Houston, stating the when she wrote Born This Way, she imagined Whitney singing it, "because I wasn't secure enough in myself to imagine I was a superstar."


Another little known Monopoly card


Today in History:
February 26, 1076 - Godfrey III (the hunchback) was assassinated on this date. He was murdered while going to the latrine with a spear through his behind. This apparently happens more frequently than I thought.

Godfrey was the duke of Lower Lorraine. (His wife, Matilda of Canossa, countess of Tuscany , known as Os Vulvae by her friends - look it up - was probably having an affair with Pope Gregory VII.)


February 26, 1815 -
One of the Top 10 prison breaks of all time



Napoleon managed to sneak past his guards and somehow escape from Elba, slip past interception by a British ship, and start on his return to France.


February 26, 1829 -
Levi Strauss, inventor and manufacturer of blue jeans was born, on this date.



He originally planned to make canvas tents for miners in the California gold rush, but soon found that durable pants sold better.


February 26, 1870 -
The Beach Pneumatic Transit, the first pneumatic-powered subway line in New York City was opened to the public on this date.

Propulsion was provided by a giant fan, nicknamed The Western Tornado, operated by a steam engine, drawing air in through a valve, and blowing it forcefully into the tunnel.



The tunnel was only a block long, and the line had only one car. Rush hour must have been a bitch.


February 26, 1908 -
What, all this junk, the yak-yak-yak? It would've broke my heart! Dialogue gags are a dime a dozen, but a good sight gag is hard to come by.







Frederick Bean (Tex) Avery, animator, cartoonist, and another member of the legendary Termite Terrace was born on this date.


February 26, 1916 -
If you have it and you know you have it, then you have it. If you have it and don't know you have it, you don't have it. If you don't have it but you think you have it, then you have it.



John Herbert Gleason, (The Great One) comedian, actor and musician was born on this day.


February 26, 1918 -
The Grandstands at the Hong Kong Jockey Club collapsed and burnt, killing 604 spectators on this date. It was the worst disaster in sports history.



Even though mad dogs and Englishmen may go out in the midday sun - they apparently will not leave a burning stadium.


February 26, 1919 -
In early January 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt declared the Grand Canyon a national monument, protecting its 800,000 acres from private development.



Congress did not officially outlaw private development in the Grand Canyon until this date in 1919, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Grand Canyon National Park Act, establishing most of the Grand Canyon as a United States National Park.


February 26, 1932 -
Country star Johnny Cash was born on this date in 1932 in Kingsland, Arkansas, one of seven children born to Ray Cash and Carrie Cloveree (née Rivers).



He was originally born J.R. Cash. The J.R. didn’t stand for anything because his parents couldn't think of a name. He took on the first name John when he joined the Air Force because the military wouldn't accept a name with just initials.


The good people at Volkswagen seem to overlook this anniversary every year.



On this date in 1936, Some junior officers in the Japanese Army mistook Japan for a foreign country and tried to conquered it.

This disrupted the Japanese automotive industry, giving Adolf Hitler the opportunity to preside over the official opening of the first Volkswagen factory on this date. (More about Hitler and cars in a moment.)


February 26, 1970 -
National Public Radio (NPR) was created by Congressional mandate, along with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting on this date.

Its programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered rank among the most popular radio programs in America.


February 26, 1974 -
A U.S. Senate report reveals Ford Motor's involvement in Nazi Germany's war efforts, for which CEO Henry Ford was awarded the Grand Cross of the German Eagle at the behest Adolf Hitler himself.

After the war, the car company was paid nearly $1M reparation by the U.S. government to compensate for one of its plants that was bombed within the Reich.

And some people worry about buying a BMW.


February 26, 1993 -
33 years ago on this date, a bomb explodes on level B2 of the World Trade Center, creating a five story crater and leaving six dead and over 1,042 injured.



Mohammed A. Salameh was later arrested in connection with the bombing as he tries to claim a refund on a rented van believed to have carried the explosion.

Genius, sheer genius.


February 26, 1994 -
Bill Hicks, writer and comedian, died of pancreatic cancer on this date.




In the years after his death, Hicks' work has achieved significant admiration and acclaim.


February 26, 2012 –
Trayvon Martin, a teen walking home from a trip to a convenience store, was fatally shot in an altercation with George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer patrolling the townhouse community of the Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford, Florida.

On August 13, 2013, George Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder charges. Trayvon Martin would have been 41 years old on February 5.



And so it goes.