Things to ponder today

Since 90% of what Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer does involves modifying the behavior of the people who own the dogs, not the dogs themselves -

Shouldn't he be called The Human Whisperer.


February 10, 1940 -
Puss Gets the Boot, the cartoon short is released by MGM on this date. It's the first appearance of Tom and Jerry.



Yeah, yeah, I know that the cat is called Jasper in this cartoon. But dammit, it's Tom, none the less.


February 10, 1942 –
The first gold record was presented to Glenn Miller for Chattanooga Choo Choo for selling 1.2 million copies in just nine months. There was no official rule set at the time to qualify.



It was a framed, gold-lacquered stamper, which later became symbolic for a million-record sales. Miller quipped, “Thanks a million, two-hundred-thousand!”


February 10, 1945 -
The no. 1 song in America, on this date, was Rum and Coca Cola by Andrews Sisters. (The copyright holder of the song was Morey Amsterdam of The Dick Van Dyke Show fame, but that's another story.)



It's nice to think back in the more 'innocent' era of America, songs about when mother and daughter prostitute rings in the Caribbean were all the rage.


February 10, 1956 -
The series about a boy and his horse is set on the Goose Bar Ranch in Montana, My Friend Flicka premiered on CBS TV on this date.



The program was filmed in color but initially aired in black and white. Although short-lived, the series was broadcast on all three major networks at one time or another, as well as the Disney Channel.


February 10, 1957 -
Allied Artists' sci-fi film Not of This Earth, directed by Roger Corman and starring Paul Birch, Beverly Garland, and Morgan Jones, premiered in US theaters on this date.



Paul Birch walked off the film before shooting was completed after having a physical confrontation with Roger Corman. He was quoted as saying, " I am an actor, and I don't need this stuff... To hell with it all! Goodbye!" According to co-star Beverly Garland, Birch objected to the fast pace of the film, the old-fashioned, uncomfortable hard plastic contacts he had to wear, and the film's low-budget, which he considered beneath his status. As a result, Birch's remaining scenes were shot with Lyle Latell doubling for Birch.


February 10, 1964 -
Bob Dylan released his third studio album The Times They Are a-Changin, on this date. The album is seen as a protest album featuring songs about issues such as racism, poverty, and social change.



The title track was one of Dylan's most famous capturing the spirit of social and political upheaval that characterized the 1960s


February 10, 1971 -
Carole King releases her seminal album Tapestry on this date. The photograph on the album sleeve featuring Carole King seated on a window sill was taken at her California home.



Tapestry was a groundbreaking album, which helped popularize the singer/songwriter genre. It stayed on the American album charts for over six years, selling over 24 million copies worldwide.


February 10, 1976 –
Sesame Street episode #847 featured Margaret Hamilton reprising her role as the Wicked Witch of the West from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, aired on this date.



It scared children so badly that the episode has never been re-aired. So Bunkies, ask your folks before you watch the video.


February 10, 1978 -
Paul Schrader's first directing effort, Blue Collar, starring Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto, premiered in the U.S. on this date.



"I hired three bulls and asked them come into a china shop, and I promised each of those bulls that they would be the lead actor." Paul Schrader revealed. Richard Pryor, Yaphet Kotto, and Harvey Keitel each figured out soon enough that they weren't the lead, and it led to chaos. Keitel saw himself as having to play straight man to Pryor's shenanigans, Pryor saw himself as "the colored friend" of Keitel's character, and Kotto felt secondary to both men. "It became a real ego struggle about who would win the day," and that was every day.


Today's moment of Zen.


Today in History:
February 10, 60 CE -
St. Paul was believed to have been shipwrecked near Malta while en route to Rome for trial for practicing Catholicism on this date. (It shouldn't have been a shock to the Romans that St. Paul was practicing Catholicism when his first name was St.)

The story is told in the Bible’s New Testament Acts of the Apostles, chapter 27. Since the shipwreck involves the lead-cup drinking, orgy-mongering Romans (who obviously were otherwise occupied when it came to accurately recording dates in history,) the Maltese commemorate the event every February 10.


February 10, 1355 -
The Feast day of Saint Scholastica seemed to be going on as usual at the the University of Oxford on this date. Saint Scholastica, sister of Saint Benedictine, is the patron saint of of nuns, education, and protectoress of people in storms, among other things. Two students (their names may have been Walter Spryngeheuse and Roger de Chesterfield, but I don't know, I wasn't there,) were enjoying the day off from school at the Swindlestock Tavern, a local bar. Much drinking ensued and somehow the bartender, John Croidon, insulted the students and the students beat up the bartender.



Residents responded violently, and a riot broke out between the students at Oxford and the residents of the surrounding town lasted for three days and left more than 90 people dead. The townsfolk were found to be responsible and were ordered to attend Mass for the souls of the dead students every year on the anniversary of the riot. They were also required to swear an oath acknowledging the University’s privileges, and pay a fine of 63 pence – one for each dead student. This continued until 1825 when the Mayor refused, but was only rescinded by Parliament in 1955.


February 10, 1535 -
12 Anabaptists ran nude through the cold and snowy streets of Amsterdam on this date. (Once again, I'm sure there's an explanation but why ask me?)

Soon the seven men and five women were apprehended. The women were executed on May 15, the men on February 25, 1535.

And you wonder why Anabaptism didn't catch on big in the US - I just wanted to put that little thought in you mind today.


February 10, 1840 -
Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, (whose first language was German, was taught English and French, and became virtually trilingual, though her mastery of the conjugation of the past-participles irregular verbs in English remained incomplete which was luckily not on the English Monarchy exam), married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (proving she also failed biology,) on this date.



She arranged marriages for her nine children (mostly to their first cousins) and forty-two grandchildren (mostly to their own first cousins - they needed charts and grafts to make sure they didn't marry their own brothers and sisters) across the continent, tying Europe together; this earned her the nickname "the grandmother of Europe".



Oh those wacky inbred royals.


February 10, 1855 -
US citizenship laws were amended to include all children of US parents born abroad on this date.

Were I Sen. Ted Cruz, I might be worried about the president looking beyond changing the 14th Amendment.


February 10, 1863 -
Little people Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren were married in a ceremony at New York's Grace Episcopal Church. P. T. Barnum footed the bill for the wedding, and generated tremendous publicity (and revenue - reception tickets $75, adjusted for inflation, $1,250 in today's dollars) in the weeks prior to and following the nuptials.



Commodore Nutt and Lavinia's shorter and younger sister Minnie acted as attendants. The Thumbs afterwards honeymooned in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington DC. In Washington they were invited by President Lincoln to be the guests of honor at a special White House reception.


February 10, 1920 -
Polish general and politician Józef Haller, performed a symbolic wedding of Poland to the sea, celebrating restitution of Polish access to open sea.

Happy anniversary (no comment.).


February 10, 1933 -
The Postal Telegraph-Cable Company of New York City delivers the first singing telegram on this date. but independent singing telegram companies, specializing in often costumed personal delivery of gift messages, have kept up the tradition.



Despite initial criticism by Western Union executives concerned with the propriety of the medium, the company's messengers delivered musical greetings in person until World War II. Singing by phone operators was resumed after the war, but faced declining popularity until Western Union dropped the service in 1974. Independent singing telegram companies, specializing in often costumed personal delivery of gift messages, have kept up the tradition.


February 10, 1967 -
The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on this date.



The 25th Amendment (Amendment XXV) to the United States Constitution deals with succession to the Presidency and establishes procedures both for filling a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, as well as responding to Presidential disabilities. It supersedes the ambiguous wording of Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution, which doesn't explicitly state whether the Vice President becomes the President if the President died, resigned, was removed from office or was unable to discharge the Presidential powers.

I wonder if J. D. Vance dreams about this at night. I wonder if he's ever spoken to Mike Pence about this.


February 10, 1968 -
Peggy Fleming won the gold medal in women's figure skating for the US at the Winter Olympic Games in Grenoble, France, on this date.



In 1994, Sports Illustrated named her one of the 40 individuals who most significantly altered or elevated sports in the previous 40 years.



And so it goes

We salute you, Sheb Woolly

The Wilhelm Scream is a stock sound effect that has been used in over 400 films and television shows (and counting). It originated in 1951 in the film Distant Drums.



The Wilhelm Scream sound effect is most commonly used when someone is falling from a great height, shot, or thrown from an explosion. It's inclusion in so many movies has become something of an inside joke for filmmakers and the audience who understand the reference.


If your team lost yesterday and are seeking some sort of solace - today is Bathtub Day,



Toothache Day (on the anniversary of the founding of the Hershey Chocolate Co, I might add,) and



Bagels and Lox Day today.



But I'm not quite sure why?


February 9, 1933 -
Based on the Mae West play Diamond Lil, the film She Done Him Wrong, opened in general release on this date. This was one of the last films to be made before the introduction of the Production Code.



During its first run engagement in New York, Mae West actually appeared on stage in scenes from the film (opposite George Metaxa) and sang several of the songs featured in the film. This formed part of a special prologue . These were popular at the time aimed at promoting major films, and the technique was used as a major plot device in the same year's big budget musical Footlight Parade  from Warner Brothers.


February 9, 1964 -
The Beatles made their US live debut on CBS-TV's The Ed Sullivan Show; they performed five songs including their current No.1 I Want To Hold Your Hand on this date.



Never before had so many viewers tuned-in to a live television program, which with 73 million viewers, was three-fourths of the total adult audience in the United States. The show had received over 50,000 requests for the 728 seats in the TV studio.

I wonder if late at night, they can still hear the ghost of those little girls screaming inside the Ed Sullivan Theatre.


February 9, 1971 -
All in the Family aired what TV scholars believe to be the first positive portrayal of a gay issue on American television on this date.



Guest stars Anthony Geary and Philip Carey both went on to play long running roles on popular ABC Soap Operas. Geary as Luke Spencer on General Hospital, and Carey as Asa Buchannan on One Life to Live.


February 9, 1976 -
Paul Simon's song, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, hits number 1 on this date.



Paul Simon has never gotten around to listing the other ways to leave but poking around the internet, I have discovered the other 45 ways:

6. Post her nude pics, Dick.
7. Delete him from your phone, Simone.
8. Block his digits, Bridget.
9. Keep him in the dark, Mark.
10. Keep blowing her off, Kristoph.
11. Just have the chat, Pat.
12. Make her break up with you, Stu.
13. Stop having sex with her, Jessic… er.
14. Give him an ultimatum, Tatum.
15. Change your address, Jess.
16. Tell the whole truth, Ruth.
17. Just get up and leave, Steve.
18. "Tell her you’ve “grown apart,” Bart.
19. Tell him “It’s not you, it’s me,” Bree.
20. Don’t give him a second chance, Lance.
21. In a public place, Chase.
22. Tell her “we’re turning into our parents,” Clarence.
23. Get back together with your ex, Lex.
24. Let yourself be the villain, Dylan.
25. Throw dishes and yell, Belle.
26. Start being mean, Gene.
27. Get really quiet, Wyatt.
28. Give up the fight, Dwight.
29. Get caught in the act, Jack.
30. Forget her birthday again, Glenn.
31. Just cut him loose, Bruce.
32. Pretend you didn’t know you were supposed to be “together,” Heather.
33. Tell her you’re married, Larry.
34. Say “It’s moving too fast,” Cass.
35. Tell him you “don’t like rules,” Jules.
36. Tell her you “don’t like labels,” Mabel.
37. Just disappear, Greer.
38. “Lose your phone,” Joan.
39. Text “We need to talk,” Brock.
40. Just be too busy, Lizzy.
41. Say you “need space,” Grace.
42. Say, “we’re just taking a break,” Jake.
43. Say, “I think I might be gay,” Ray.
44. Say, “I think I might be straight,” Nate.
45. Admit to your affair, Blair.
46. Get a restraining order, Porter.
47. Tell her “It’s me or the drinkin,” Lincoln.
48. Fly off the handle, Randall.
49. Blame everything on him, Tim.
50. Say “I don’t deserve you,” Drew

Next up - 50 ways to Delouse your Liver or 50 ways to lose your luggage


February 9, 1979 -
Based on the 1974 independent film of the same name, The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, starring Dan Haggerty and Ben the Bear (Bozo), premiered on NBC TV on this date.



The series was shot in Northern Utah countryside locations. The production office was based in Park City, Utah. The production of this show put Park City on the map in the film industry, and was influential to Robert Redford, who established his Sundance Film Festival there after the series ended.


February 9, 1979 -
Before the birth of MTV, ABC-TV marked the 25th anniversary of the birth of Rock and Roll by premiering the documentary Heroes of Rock and Roll on this date.



In two hours, from the high-school gym dance scene from the film Rock Around The Clock to the closing That's all, bye-bye, of the late Frankie Lyman in the movie Rock, Rock, Rock, the documentary shows 62 artists and groups singing 100 different songs.


February 9, 1979 -
Walter Hill's film The Warriors premiered in the US on this date. The film sparked gang violence at many theaters and brought a halt to the film's marketing campaign.



Crew members were sent death threats because local gangs weren't cast. Thousands of dollars worth of equipment were damaged when one gang tore through the set during a lunch break.


February 9, 1990 -
Proving that you can throw good money after bad, CBS TV tried with an hour-long Comedy-Drama(?) version of The Brady Bunch, The Bradys, starring the usual suspect, which debuted on this date. The show lasted six episodes.



Once again Robert Reed fought with Sherwood Schwartz over script quality. When Schwartz refused to make the changes he desired, Reed bypassed him and Paramount and went straight to CBS to complain. Schwartz was furious, and no one at CBS listened because due to the executive turnover at the time, people there feared for their jobs. This would be Robert Reed's final involvement in a Brady Bunch project. Reed died two years after the series aired. Surviving cast members would continue to take part in various reunion specials and retrospectives and some made cameos in The Brady Bunch Movie.


February 9, 1997 -
The Fox cartoon series The Simpsons became the longest-running animated series in cartoon history when it aired it's 167th episode on this date.



"I can't believe we've been annoying people for this long," executive producer and show creator Matt Groening told the Associated Press. The show is still going 26 years later


Word of the Day.


Today in History -
On February 9, 772, Adrian I was elected pope. His election was won largely due to strong Frank support. (This Gaelic support system was the precursor to French support, which remains anything but Frank.)

Adrian worked closely with Charlemagne, also known as Carolus Magnus (Big Chuck), the inventor of France.

So now you know.


William Henry Harrison was born on February 9, 1773. Mr. Harrison was the Ninth president of the United States.



He died after 32 days in office, although historians are quick to point out that it has never been adequately proven that he was alive prior to his inauguration.


February 9, 1825 -
John Quincy Adams became the Sixth U.S. President, despite losing the popular vote. Adams was elected by the House of Representatives on this date after the Electoral College could not arrive at a majority.



His appointment was largely due to the influence of Henry Clay (then Speaker of the House and also a candidate for the presidency in 1824), whom Adams later appointed as his Secretary of State.


The Great Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky died on February 9, 1881.



He died of natural causes in Moscow, and over 40,000 mourners turned out for his funeral but what the hell do you care, you didn't read him anyway.


February 9, 1894 -
Chocoholics everywhere rejoice!



Milton Hershey founded the Hershey Chocolate Company (just in time for Valentine's Day) and began experimenting with a process mastered by the Swiss - mixing milk with chocolate on this date.


February 9, 1895 –
William G. Morgan met James Naismith, inventor of basketball, while Morgan was studying at Springfield College in 1892. Like Naismith, Morgan pursued a career in Physical Education at the YMCA. Morgan was greatly influenced by Naismith and his new game, basketball. On this date, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Morgan invented a less vigorous team sport more suitable for older members of the YMCA but one that still required athletic skill called Mintonette because of its similarity with badminton.



Later Professor Alfred S. Halstead watched it being played and renamed it Volleyball, because the point of the game is to volley the ball back and forth over the net.


February 9, 1909 -
The first federal law prohibiting the importation of opium was enacted, The Opium Exclusion Act of 1909 on this date.

It is aimed not particularly at the ravages the drug was having on American society but as a discriminatory act against the Chinese.

(note: white people weren't using opium in large quantities at the time.)


February 9, 1942 -
The former French cruise ship Normandie, launched in 1935, burned in New York Harbor during its conversion to an Allied trip transport ship on this date.



It was once regarded as most elegant ocean liner ever built. In 1947, the remaining wreckage was cut up for scrap.


February 9, 1950 -
Senator Joseph McCarthy announced he has a list more than 200 State Department employees who were Communist Party members on this date.



He did not mention that J. Edgar Hoover liked to wear a bustier and leather pumps.


February 9, 1969 -
Jess Wallick, flight engineer, Jack Waddell, pilot, and Brien Wygle, co-pilot, flew the first test flight of Boeing-747-100 jumbo jet over Everett’s Paine Field in Washington State, on this date.



The first plane was 225ft (68.5m) long with a tail as tall as a six-story building and required the construction of a 200-million-cubic foot (5.6m cu. m) plant at Everett, near Seattle. The last Boeing 747 to be built left the company's widebody factory in Washington on December 6, 2022.



And so it goes

Find a good spot on the couch

(Bunkies, if you don't have to go utside - DON'T. It's dangerously cold outside today)

Some of you may actually be watching the Super Bowl later today. According to the Hass Avocado Board, more than 763 million pounds of avocados were shipped into the U.S. last week. Of this amount, 98–99 percent were sourced from Mexico, and about 1 percent came from the Dominican Republic. Surprisingly, this year 0 percent originated from Peru and Chile. Both countries decided to concentrate on their South American distribution. Approximately 250 million individual avocados are sold in preparation just for the game. To shovel that guac into gaping maws, a whopping 28,100 tons of corn- and tortilla-based chips are used to scoop it up.



This year, the National Chicken Council predicts that folks will wolf down more than 1.48 billion wings during this year’s Super Bowl, which is up 1%, or 10 million wings, from last year. To put that in visual terms - 1.48 billion wings laid end to end would stretch roughly 27 times between the home stadiums of this year’s Super Bowl contenders: Gillette Stadium (New England Patriots) and Lumen Field (Seattle Seahawks).



Americans will be washing down those snacks by drinking approximately 325.5 million gallons of beer this weekend.



Super Bowl LIX, played on February 9, 2025, and broadcast by FOX in the U.S., was watched by more than 127.7 million viewers in the United States, setting an all-time high for American television. Nielsen ratings were up even more during the halftime show, featuring Kendrick Lamar, with guest appearances by SZA, Samuel L. Jackson, Serena Williams, and Mustard. Approximately 22.6 million Americans planned to miss work the following day. Shockingly - shockingly, I say - of this total, about 3.2 million people specifically planned to call in “sick,” despite not actually being ill.



This year, the coronavirus (and I will come to your home and smack you upside your head if you blame Corona beer for the illness) is resurging, so you may actually have an excuse.

Enjoy the game


Today is National Boy Scout Day. Boy Scout Day celebrates the birthday of Scouting in America.

On this date in 1910, Chicago publisher William Dickson Boyce filed incorporation papers in the District of Columbia to create the Boy Scouts of America.



Oh wait a minute, this may not be the right video for the anniversary.


February 8, 1936 -
Warner Brothers released the classic film The Petrified Forest starring Leslie Howard, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart on this date.



The character of Duke Mantee was mainly inspired by bank robber John Dillinger. Humphrey Bogart happened to closely resemble the gangster, and he studied film footage of Dillinger to perfect his mannerisms.


February 8, 1968 -
Planet of The Apes premiered in NYC on this date, confirming Charlton Heston's position as one of the greatest "One Note Actors" of his generation.



All the ape actors and extras were required to wear their masks even during breaks and in between shots because it took so much time to make them up. Because of this, meals were liquified and drunk through straws.


February 8, 1973 –
The cult classic film The Harder They Come (the breakthough film for Reggae music in the US,) was released in New York by Roger Corman's New World Pictures, on this date.



The movie is in Jamaican Patois, a creole language which can be understood to some extent by English speakers. There are subtitles in English for much of the movie on the original theatrical print.


February 8, 1974 -
The spin-off from the sitcom Maude, that wasn't quite a spin-off, Good Times, premiered on CBS-TV on this date.



Norman Lear hired artist Ernie Barnes to paint the pictures which J.J. used in the show. Barnes' work displays elongated African-American subjects in everyday scenes. Eddie Murphy owns the original The Sugar Shack painting by Barnes.


February 8, 1975 –
Ohio Players' single Fire went to No. # 1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



Lead Ohio Player Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner, who also wrote the lyrics about getting hot for a smokin' woman, recalled how the song came to life in the studio. "We were in the studio making tracks and all of a sudden, it leaped out," he told Fred Bronson, author of The Billboard Book Of #1 R&B Hits. His bandmates came up with the title "Fire" and he ran with it. "They come with the names and I have to write to them. If the music is good, it doesn't take long to get inspired," he explained. The inclusion of the telltale fire-truck sirens was a no-brainer. He added: "To use all the effects one could use on a track like that, the fire engines and all that seemed very apropos to what was going on on the albums of that era. Other people were using babies crying and kids singing and street sounds. A lot of people were using sound effects of various natures, so we thought about that also."


February 8, 1976 -
Martin Scorsese's elegy to the swiftly disappearing squalor of 70's New York, Taxi Driver premiered on this date.



Director Martin Scorsese claims that the most important shot in the movie is when Bickle is on the phone trying to get another date with Betsy. The camera moves to the side slowly and pans down the long, empty hallway next to Bickle, as if to suggest that the phone conversation is too painful and pathetic to bear.


February 8, 1979 -
The Garry Marshall sitcom Angie, starring Donna Pescow, Robert Hays, and Doris Roberts, premiered on ABC TV, on this date.



While appearing in this series, Robert Hays co-starred in Airplane! in which he danced to The Bee Gees' Stayin' Alive, the song that opened Saturday Night Fever in which Donna Pescow made her feature debut.


February 8, 1986 -
John Woo's hugely influencial crime drama, A Better Tomorrow, starring Ti Lung, Leslie Cheung and Chow Yun-fat premiered in Hong Kong on this date.

Don't forget to turn on the captioning

The movie is actually a remake of a 1967 Cantonese film called The Story of a Discharged Prisoner. The film's producer, Hark Tsui had been toying with the idea since his days in the TV business, but because of an overwhelming workload, had to pass the directorial reigns to John Woo.


Another album from the discount bin of The ACME Record Shoppe.


Today in History:
February 8, 1587 -
After some 19 years in prison, Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded on this date.



She had spent the last hours of her life in prayer and also writing letters and her will. She expressed a request that her servants should be released. She also requested that she should be buried in France. The scaffold that was erected in the great hall was three feet tall and draped in black. It was reached by five steps and the only things on it were a disrobing stool, the block, a cushion for her to kneel on, and a bloody butcher's axe that had been previously used on animals. At her execution she removed a black cloak to reveal a deep red dress - the liturgical color of martyrdom in the Catholic Church.



The execution was badly carried out. It is said to have taken three blows to hack off her head. The first blow struck the back of her head, the next struck her shoulder and severed her subclavian artery, spewing blood in all directions. She was alive and conscious after the first two blows. The next blow took off her head, save some gristle, which was cut using the axe as a saw.



Various improbable stories about the execution were later circulated. One which is thought to be true is that, when the executioner picked up the severed head to show it to those present, it was discovered that Mary was wearing a wig. The headsman was left holding the wig, while the late queen's head rolled on the floor. Another well-known execution story concerns a small dog owned by the queen, which is said to have been hiding among her skirts, unseen by the spectators. Following the beheading, the dog rushed out, terrified and covered in blood. It was taken away by her ladies-in-waiting and washed, but it did not survive the shock.



All of this must have been a pretty sight.


February 8, 1861 -
The southern states which had seceded from the United States agreed to reunite in The Confederate States of America.



This caused the Civil War, a period of unprecedented bloodshed in American history, which surely could have been avoided through a rigorous U.N. regimen of plantation inspections.


Co-incidentally, or not
February 8, 1915 -
D.W. Griffith's controversial film The Birth of a Nation (The Clansman) premiered in Los Angeles on this date.



It is widely believed that after viewing this film in the White House, President Woodrow Wilson remarked that it was "like writing history with lightning." However, the reality is that Wilson disapproved of the "unfortunate production". It is believed by some of Wilson's aides that the apparent endorsement and approbation was a ruse generated by Thomas F. Dixon Jr., the author of the original novel.


February 8, 1924 -
Breathe deeply.

The first person to die in Nevada's new gas chamber was Chinese born Gee Jong on this date for the murder of Tom Quong Kee, a member of a rival gang. His lawyers had fought a long battle in the courts to show that the gas chamber was a "cruel and unusual punishment" and as such was illegal under the Eight Amendment to the Constitution.



The execution commenced at 9:30 a.m. when Gee Jong was led from a holding cell and secured to the chair within the chamber. He appeared to struggle a little after the gas was manually pumped in and then lapse into unconsciousness but as no external stethoscope had been used he was left in the chamber for 30 minutes to ensure death.


February 8, 1942 -
Robert Klein, comedian and actor, was born on this date.





Really, please stop writing him, Mr. Klein has run out of records starting with the letter D.


February 8, 1960 -
Beer heir Adolph Coors III (who was ironically allergic to beer), was killed after a failed kidnapping attempt in Colorado on this date. By October, Joseph Corbett Jr. was arrested in Canada after an national manhunt.

Corbett was convinced and sent to prison. He was pardoned in 1978. Mr Corbett committed suicide in 2010, still maintaining his innocence in the crime.



I guess Mr. Corbett didn't get his deposit back.


February 8, 1968 -
Gary Coleman, actor, security guard, perp and ultimately, a corpse was born on this date.



What else is there to say.


February 8, 2023 -
I started playing piano with a little band in high school. I was terrible. I thought I had absolutely no talent. I couldn't keep time. I only got into McGill, which was a lousy music school, because they were taking American music students.



One of the most important composers of pop music in the past century, Burt Bacharach, passed away on this date.



And so it goes