It's a beautiful day today,

so it a perfect time to celebrate National Ice Cream Sandwich Day today. The day was made to enjoy an ice cream sandwich.



The best way to celebrate is to make your own!


August 2, 1941 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Aviation Vacation, directed by Tex Avery, was released on this date.



This is the last cartoon to list Tex Avery as a credited director, as All This and Rabbit Stew and The Bug Parade do not credit him..


August 2, 1965 -
Michael Caine's first outing as the anti Bond spy, Harry Palmer in The Ipcress File, premiered in the US on this date.



Producer Harry Saltzman hated Director Sidney J. Furie and his oddball style, and went so far as to bar him from the editing room. According to Furie, Saltzman also excluded him from the movie's party at Cannes, and even stole his best picture British Academy Award.


August 2, 1967 -
The crime drama In the Heat of the Night, starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, opened in New York on this date.



This was the first major Hollywood film in color that was lit with proper consideration for an actor with dark skin. Haskell Wexler recognized that standard lighting used in filming produced too much glare on most black actors and others of dark complexion. He toned down the lighting to feature Sidney Poitier with better results.


August 2, 1968 -
The Doors single, Hello, I Love You, from their album Waiting for the Sun, reached No. 1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



The music is similar to The Kinks' song All Day And All Of The Night. So similar, that it has been rumored that The Doors paid royalties from the British single to The Kinks after the threat of legal action.


August 2, 1975 -
The eponymously named title track from their One of These Nights album, became the Eagles second single to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart, after Best Of My Love, on this date.



Glenn Frey cited this as an example of how he and Don Henley clicked as songwriters. "I'd go over to the piano and say, 'Hey, what do you think of this?' he told Tavis Smiley. "I'd play something, and he'd go, 'Yeah, I like that, I like that.' Maybe just get up and start singing. That's the way we wrote 'One of These Nights.' I just went over to the piano and I started playing this little minor descending progression, and he comes over and goes, (singing) 'One of these nights.' I go, yeah, yeah."


August 2, 1985 -
Universal Pictures released the sci-fi comedy film Weird Science, directed by John Hughes and starring Anthony Michael Hall, Kelly LeBrock and Ilan Mitchell-Smith, on this date.



In the scene where Bill Paxton is speaking to Kelly LeBrock while interrogating everyone over what had happened the previous night, in the background, Suzanne Snyder and Anthony Michael Hall are struggling to stay in character, but it is clear they are laughing. John Hughes chose to use this take in the completed film.


August 2, 1989 -
Universal Pictures released Ron Howard's film, Parenthood, starring Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, Dianne Wiest, Martha Plymton and Keanu Reeves on this date.



This movie is based on Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Lowell Ganz, and Babaloo Mandel's experiences as parents.


August 2, 1998 -
Beastie Boys' fifth studio album Hello Nasty started a three week run at No. 1 on the Billboard Album Charts, on this date. This would be the band's third U.S. No. 1 album.



Some of the pioneering hip-hop acts that emerged in the early '80s distorted their vocals in innovative ways, but in the '90s, rappers usually went for a big, bold sound without any distortion. Beastie Boys bucked that trend, using a karaoke microphone to squiggle their raps on tracks from their 1992 album Check Your Head, notably So What'cha Want. By the time they recorded Intergalactic for the Hello Nasty album, they had access to a vocoder.


August 2, 1999 –
M. Night Shyamalan's psychological thriller, The Sixth Sense, starring Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment and Toni Collette premiered in the US on this date.



Reportedly, Haley Joel Osment got the role of Cole Sear for one of three reasons. First, he was best for it. Second, he was the only boy at auditions who wore a tie. Third, director M. Night Shyamalan was surprised when he asked Osment if he read his part. Osment replied, "I read it three times last night." Shyamalan was impressed, saying, "Wow, you read your part three times?" To which Osment replied, "No, I read the script three times."


August 2, 2014 -
Weird Al Yankovic's fourteenth studio album, Mandatory Fun goes to No. 1 on the Billboard Album Charts, on this date.



It’s the first No. 1 comedy album on Billboard’s charts since Allan Sherman’s My Son, the Nut in 1963 – the album that contained Sherman’s biggest hit, Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh.


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


Today in History:
August 2, 1100 -
Force Majeure
(Those of you with delicate sensibilities may wish to skip this story.)

You may have wondered when the phrase Act of God first came into use. You've seen it on legal forms and may have unfortunately encountered it while trying to collect on your homeowner's insurance policy. As with many things, the English can be blamed—er, credited—with popularizing the term.



William II - better known as William Rufus - the second surviving son of William the Conqueror, was King of England from 1087 until 1100. He also ruled Normandy and wielded considerable influence in Scotland. He was not well liked, particularly for his unusual (and thoroughly unwholesome) practice of buggering unwilling men throughout his reign.

William began his royal tenure on September 26, 1087, and apparently liked to start each day with a brisk round of forced sodomy. Though he had no shortage of "special friends," he seemed to prefer a fresh, mostly unwilling courtier every morning.

And why not? It's good to be the king.

As roughly the thousandth such morning approached, William decided to follow his usual routine: a bit of coerced intimacy followed by a hunting excursion. Off the royal party went. Before long, the nobles returned—except for William. His brother Henry (soon to become Henry I) was among those who hurried back, leaving William lying (yes, lying) dead in the New Forest with an arrow through his lung on this very date.



Henry wasted no time crowning himself king. He later ordered an inquest into his brother's demise—not because he was especially curious about the outcome. In fact, no one even bothered to retrieve William's body. It was eventually hauled back to Winchester Cathedral by a peasant in the back of a dung cart. I kid you not.

A royal commission was convened and ultimately concluded that William's death was a just end—an Act of God visited upon a wicked king.

So there you have it: the next time your insurance company refuses to pay a claim because of an "Act of God," you can thank a long-dead English monarch with a fondness for vigorous, nonconsensual sodomy.


August 2, 1776 –
Once again, your teachers lied to you - the signing of the Declaration of Independence didn’t occur on July 4.



After the Continental Congress voted to declare independence on July 2, the final language of the document was approved on July 4, and it was printed and distributed on July 4–5. The actual signing was on this date. Matthew Thornton from New Hampshire didn't get around to sign it until November 4, 1776.


August 2, 1876 -
Drinking at a saloon in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, Jack McCall noticed Wild Bill Hickok playing poker at a corner table. Then he calmly walked over to the table and blew a wide hole in the back of Hickok's head with a .45 revolver. The professional gambler and onetime lawman was holding a pair of Aces and a pair of Eights, now known as the "Dead Man's Hand." There is no general consensus on what the fifth card was.



So kids, please remember to split those aces and eights when you are dealt them.


August 2, 1909 -
The first Lincoln head pennies were minted on this date.

It was 95% copper and was the first US coin to depict the likeness of a president.


August 2, 1923 -
President Warren G. Harding died suddenly at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco on this date. His wife Florence forbids an autopsy, and the President's body is embalmed shortly after death. It is speculated by many that the cause of death, initially reported as "a stroke of apoplexy," was in fact poison administered by the First Lady. Mrs. Harding was rather annoyed that her husband was giving dictation to his secretary in the broom closet.



You have to love this asshole - he actually lost the White House china in a poker game. And despite the fact that Prohibition made it illegal, Harding served his friends alcohol.



Harding had the largest feet of any U.S. President. He wore size 14 shoes. I'll just leave you all with that.



Make of it what you will.


August 2, 1924 -
There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now.



James Arthur Baldwin, writer and civil rights activist was born on this date


August 2, 1939 -
Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd, representing fellow physicists who have discovered that an atomic bomb could be built from Uranium, write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt explaining the dangers of Germany developing Atomic Bomb capabilities before the United States. The letter came just before the beginning of World War II.



The scientists warn Roosevelt of efforts in Nazi Germany to purify Uranium-235. Soon after the letter, the United States Government begins “The Manhattan Project.” Einstein later reacted to the destructive elements of the atom bomb by saying. "If only I had known I should have become a watchmaker."


August 2, 1943 -
A Navy patrol torpedo boat, PT-109, commanded by Lt. John F. Kennedy, sank after being sheared in two by the Amagiri, a Japanese destroyer, off the Solomon Islands. Two members of the crew were killed in the collision.



An injured Kennedy and the ship's other survivors clung to the wreckage and swam to a nearby island, where Aaron Kumana and Biuku Gasa found them. The pair rowed 35 miles through enemy-held waters to summon a rescue boat.


August 2, 1990 -
After Kuwait refuses to waive Iraq's war debts, 100,000 Iraqi soldiers stream across the border and seize control of Kuwait City. Their troops outnumbered 5-to-1, the Kuwaitis mount no resistance whatsoever. In so doing, Saddam Hussein precipitates the first Gulf War.



This was one of the the reasons we got into the mess in Iraq.



And so it goes.

The border between summer and autumn

The festival of Lammas marks the beginning of the harvest, when people go to church to give thanks for the first grain to be cut.

This is the long way of saying that it's August again.

How did a single month become so important? Like almost everything else that's difficult to understand, the history of August begins in Ancient Rome.

The Roman calendar was a hot mess. Not just because there were VII days in a week and XXVIII days in a month, but also because the calendar was being managed by a high priest. In 46 BC, for example, autumn began in January. This irritated Julius Caesar, who demanded that the calendar be reformed to make sense - and that the priests assigned to manage it, stop getting high.



Caesar's new calendar went into effect on January 1, 45 BC. The fifth month of the year, Quintilis, which had actually been the seventh month of the year, was renamed July - short for Julius - in honor of his work on the calendar. (Calendar professionals still refer to July as the "Caesarian section.")

Years later, after Caesar's grand-nephew defeated Mark Anthony and Cleopatra and became emperor of Rome, the Senate decided to name a month after him. They chose the month of Sextillus, the sixth month (and therefore eighth), and renamed it Gaius Octavius. Fortunately the Emperor renamed himself Augustus before any calendars had been printed.

The Emperor was not entirely pleased. His month had only 30 days, whereas his grand-uncle's had 31. The Senate immediately added another day to August, removing it from February in the hope of losing one day of winter to gain one of summer.



Remember to celebrate responsibly the following, this month:

Brownies at Brunch Month
National Peach Month
Pink Toenail Month
Clown Month
International Left-handed Month
Eye Exam Month
Family Meal Month


The first Saturday in August is National Mustard Day (in my home it is National Moutarde Day, we leave the 's' off for savings.) In case you didin't know, Mustard is a condiment made from the seeds of a mustard plant (white or yellow mustard, Sinapis hirta; brown or Indian mustard, Brassica juncea; or black mustard, B. nigra).



So please have some mustard today. Don't put all those people out of work.


If all that wasn't enough, the first Saturday in August, today is International Beer Day (not to be confused with National Beer Day, celebrated annually on April 7th.) International Beer Day, founded in 2007, is a global celebration of the second most popular beverage in the world: Beer!



International Beer Day festivities usually takes place in pubs, clubs, bars, restaurants, breweries, backyards and anywhere else you can enjoy a cold one; this year, enjoy responsibly at home. (Hey International Beer Consortium, you can contact my lawyers about my commission.)


August 1, 1931 -
F.W. Murnau's last film (he died in a car accident a few days after starting work on the music for the film), Tabu: A Story of the South Seas, was released on this date.



The film's Oscar-winning cinematographer Floyd Crosby was the father of rock legend David Crosby, renowned as a member of The Byrds and, much more famously, of Crosby Stills Nash & Young.


July 25 1936 -
The Looney Tunes short, Porky the Rain-Maker, directed by Tex Avery, and starring Pork Pig, was released on this date.



The cartoon Sioux Me would be released three years later with the same story premise. Directed by Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton, it features a Native American main cast and no appearance by Porky Pig.


July 25 1943 -
The Looney Tunes short, The Ducktators, directed by Norman McCabe, and starring Daffy Duck, was released on this date.



The cartoon is selmon aired because it has outdated World War II references and offensive racial stereotypes that are difficult to edit out of the cartoon


August 1, 1952 -
Jo Stafford, pop star singer during the 1940s and 1950s, entered the Billboard charts with the song You Belong To Me on this date.



In the '30s, she performed with her sisters as The Stafford Sisters and later sang with Tommy Dorsey. She was one of the first artists to record parody versions of hit songs, and was known for her work with the USO where she entertained the troops. She died on July 16, 2008 at age 90.


July 25 1964 -
The Looney Tunes short, Señorella and the Glass Huarache, directed by Hawley Pratt, was released on this date.



This was the last cartoon released by the original Warner Bros. studio. The studio would re-open in 1964 for DePatie-Freleng Enterprises and again in 1967 for Warner Bros.-Seven Arts.


August 1, 1964 –
The Beatles' single A Hard Day’s Night went to the top of the Billboard Charts on this date. It became the fifth US No. 1 single the Beatles scored in seven months.



The title was taken from an expression Ringo used to say. In a 1964 interview with DJ Dave Hull, Ringo explained: "We went to do a job, and we'd worked all day and we happened to work all night. I came up still thinking it was day I suppose, and I said, 'It's been a hard day...' and I looked around and saw it was dark so I said, 'Night!' So we came to 'A Hard Day's Night.'"


August 1, 1968 -
The epic Toho Co. kaiju film, Destroy All Monsters (AKA Kaiju So-shingeki), directed by Ishiro Honda,and starring Akira Kubo, Jun Tazaki, Yukiko Kobayashi and Yoshio Tsuchiya, opened in Japan on this date.



This is the second film in the Godzilla series since Godzilla, in which Godzilla actually appears in or attacks Tokyo. In Godzilla Raids Again, Godzilla appears in Osaka; in King Kong vs. Godzilla, he never appears in Tokyo; in Mothra vs. Godzilla, he appears in Nagoya; in Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster, he appears in Yokohama; in Invasion of Astro-Monster, he is taken from Lake Myojin by the Xiliens and then appears in the Nagano Prefecture; and in Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, and Son of Godzilla, he appears in two South Pacific islands.


August 1, 1971 -
George Harrison presented the first of his two Concerts For Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden in New York City, on this date.



The concert was mainly intended to provide financial aid to refugees from the Bangladesh area, who were fleeing by the thousands. In total, the concert and other efforts stemming from it raised over $240,000 for UNICEF, with additional money still going to them through later film revenue.


August 1, 1971 -
The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour debuted on CBS television as a summer replacement show, on this date.



And Cher will outlive us all.


August 1, 1971 -
The Six Wives of Henry VIII an acclaimed BBC series originally airing in 1970, premiered on PBS, on this date.



Costume Designer John Bloomfield worked for nearly a year on the mini-series. He spent three months doing basic research at the National Portrait Gallery, Windsor Castle, and various libraries, going through books and papers, and studying paintings and drawings, especially those by Hans Holbein. Apart from the sheer number of costumes involved (three hundred, including twenty-five for Henry), the real challenge was to re-create the richness of court dress. This was accomplished by using screen printing methods with paints and resins on cheap heavy materials. Embossed fabric patterns were achieved by drawing on the basic material with fiber pens, then painting over it.


August 1, 1973 -
Universal premiered George Lucas ode to early 1960s, American Graffiti, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Harrison Ford, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark and Mackenzie Phillips, premiered on this date.



The film was shot in sequence, so as filming went on and the actors grew tired from the shooting schedule, the characters they played would also look more and more tired as the night went on.


August 1, 1992 -
Pearl Jam's hit Jeremy makes its debut on MTV on this date.



At the end of the video, we see Jeremy walk, shirtless, into his classroom, throw an apple to the teacher, and make a gesture as if pulling something from his pocket. We later see his classmates shocked and sprayed with blood, implying that Jeremy has shot himself. Originally, this section showed the gun, but MTV ordered it removed, citing a policy against showing firearms. This didn't sit well with director Mark Pellington, "MTV made us edit out the gun going in the mouth. That created the great confusion, which made it appear like he brought the gun and shot his classmates, which was a huge misinterpretation and years later connected "Jeremy" to school shootings, which was not it at all. Yet, people like to make the connection."

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


Today in History:
August 1, 30 BC (again, this date is not fixed in stone; the annual calendar makers orgy and dinner dance was held on this date as well) - Mark Antony, (not the not so handsome ex-husband of J-Lo but) lover of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII and claimant to the Roman throne, was the most interesting man of his age (think the Dos X man and the Old Spice guy - Isaiah Mustafa and not Fabio.) Mark Antony came from a very well to do family but ran with the very fast crowd of Rome. By the time he was 20, Antony had to flee Rome (for Greece) to escape his creditors (he had run up $5 million in debt) and the scandal involving his long-term relationship with the son of the Consul of Rome.

Mark Antony joined the army and joined the staff of his distant relative Julius Caesar. His fortunes, literally changed and Antony expected to be named the heir to Rome after the assassination of Julius Caesar, but had not counted on Caesar naming his adopted son and grand-nephew Octavian as his successor.



Shaken by his loss at Actium a year earlier, abandoned by his allies and faced with certain defeat at the hands of his rival Octavian, Mark Antony committed suicide by falling upon his own sword on this date. Cleopatra followed him in death shortly afterward when she allowed herself to be bitten by a venomous asp.

An interesting fact you can drop at the next cocktail party you attend, through his youngest daughters, Mark Antony became the ancestor of most of the Emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Octavian's (Augustus') family.


August 1, 1589 -
King Henri III of France was assassinated by a crazy Jacobin monk, Jacques Clement, who plunged a knife into the lower part of his body, on this date.

Among his crimes are opposing the Catholic League, and his love of...vigorous sodomy (or so it is rumored.)


August 1, 1769 -
Spain sent an exploratory expedition from San Diego to Monterey to survey the area and identify places worth sending more people to become Catholic. The expedition was led by Gaspar de Portola, nephew of the celebrated Spanish comedian Uncle Porky, and included a number of religious missionaries assigned to imposing afternoon naps upon the heathens.

Camping on some fertile ground beside a river on August 2, Father Juan Crespi suggested they name the river El Rio de Padre Juan Crespi. As the laughter subsided, he suggested El Rio de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula, (The River of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Uncle Porky.) It was agreed, and the merry band continued on their way.



Twelve years later Mexico's Spanish Governor, Felipe de Neve, began dispatching settlers to establish pueblos in the name of the Spanish King. These settlers were called "Los Pobladores" on account of their penchant for Poblas. One such group, led by Captain Rivera y Moncada, settled in the area by the previously mentioned river. They named their new community "Our Pueblo by the River of Our Lady of the Angels of Uncle Porky."

The settlement grew, and came to be known as "The City by the Pueblo by the River of Our Lady of the Angels of Uncle Porky."

In 1822, Mexico took California from Spain. In 1846, following two years of hostilities, the United States took it from Mexico. Many Americans were injured attempting to pronounce the name of El Ciudad del Pueblo del Rio de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula, which they therefore renamed Los Angeles in 1850.

California was admitted to the Union later that year.



Los Angeles retained that name until the mid-20th century, when even that proved too much for most American tongues. It was finally reduced to just L.A.


In Wiltshire, England, on August 1, 1774 Joseph Priestley focused sunlight through a lens in order to heat a sample of mercuric oxide (red calx). The resulting gas supported the burning of a candle with a vigorous flame, was essentially insoluble in water, and accommodated a mouse under glass for some time. And that's how Oxygen was born.



Priestley called his new gas "dephlogisticated air.” His discovery came at a very good time, people were getting very tired from holding their breathe all these years.


August 1, 1793 -
The kilogram first appeared in France. Developed by priests and scientists, the kilogram flourished as soon as it was released into the wild and can now be found thriving throughout the world.

The kilogram can be found in parts of the United States, but has encountered too many indigenous predators to establish dominance.


August 1, 1936 -
Adolf Hitler presides over the opening ceremony of the Olympics on this date. The Chancellor of Germany announces: "I proclaim the games of Berlin, celebrating the eleventh Olympiad of the modern era, to be open," (except he said it originally in German.)



The concept of the torch relay was introduced by Joseph Geobbel’s Propaganda Ministry and the whole thing makes for a great film by Leni Riefenstahl.


August 1, 1944 -
I keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would like to be, and what I could be, if...there weren't any other people living in the world

Anne Frank penned her last entry into her diary on this date.

Three days later, Anne and her family were arrested and sent to Nazi concentration camps. Anne died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945 at age 15.


August 1, 1961 -
Six Flags Over Texas, the first park of the Six Flags chain opened on this date.



Located on 212 acres in Arlington, Texas, the park was developed around a theme - the history of Texas. The park was the first to feature log flume and mine train rides.


August 1, 1966 -
Charles Whitman, as a student at the University of Texas at Austin, wounded 30 and killed 16 on this date, before being killed by police.



Two years later, Peter Bogdanovich directed his first film, Targets, based of the the Whitman slayings.



Roger Corman told Peter Bogdanovich he could make any film he wanted to, with two conditions: he had to use stock footage from The Terror, and he had to hire Boris Karloff for two days (Karloff was under contract and owed Corman those two days). Karloff was so impressed with the script that he refused pay for any shooting time over his contracted two days. He worked for a total of five days on the movie.


August 1, 1981 -
MTV launched 45 years ago today, starting with the video, Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles followed by Pat Benatar's You Better Run.



Western civilization has been on a rapid decline ever since.



And so it goes.

To reform the world must begin with yourself

Today is the Feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola.



Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuit order of Catholic priests and brothers, died in Rome on this date in 1556.


July 31, 1928 -
MGM’s Leo the lion roared for the first time on this date.



He introduced MGM’s first talking picture, White Shadows on the South Seas. The film was directed by W.S. Van Dyke and starred Monte Blue. It won an Oscar in 1928-29 for Best Cinematography


July 31, 1935 -
The British spy thriller, The 39 Steps, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Robert Donat, and Madeleine Carroll, was released on this date. Alfred Hitchcock regarded this as one of his favorite movies.



Before filming the scene where Hannay (Robert Donat) and Pamela (Madeleine Carroll) run through the countryside, Alfred Hitchcock handcuffed them together and pretended for several hours to have lost the key in order to put them in the right frame of mind for such a situation.


July 30, 1937 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Plenty of Money and You, directed by Friz Freleng, was released on this date.



Sloppy Joe's, a Key West fixture that was beloved by Ernest Hemingway, had its beginning just four years prior, when Prohibition was repealed in 1933.


July 31, 1966 -
The cult classic movie, The War of the Gargantuas (AKA ,Furankenshutain no Kaiju: Sanda tai Gaira) directed by Ishiro Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya, and starring Russ Tamblyn, Kumi Mizuno, Kenji Sahara, Yû Sekida and Haruo Nakajima, was release on this date, in Japan.



Haruo Nakajima, the man who played many of the Toho monsters, including Godzilla in 12 of his original 15 films, has said Gaira, the evil Green Gargantua, was his favorite to portray due to the flexibility of the costume and because his eyes were visible through the mask, allowing him to emote better.


July 31, 1968 -
The film adaptation of the 1940 novel of the same name by Carson McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, directed by Robert Ellis Miller, and starring Alan Arkin, Sondra Locke (in her film debut), Cicely Tyson, and Stacy Keach, was released on this date.



Montgomery Clift was approached to play Singer (Alan Arkin's character) in an early 1960s version that never got off the ground.


July 31, 1971 -
James Taylor's cover of the Carole King song, You've Got A Friend hit #1 on the Billboard charts on this date.



Taylor heard this song for the first time in November 1970, when he played a week of shows at The Troubadour in Los Angeles. By this time, his album Sweet Baby James had taken off, and Taylor was drawing large crowds. He asked his good friend Carole King to be his opening act, and King grudgingly accepted - she wasn't used to playing her own songs live and was very nervous.


July 31, 1976 –
Blue Oyster Cult single, from their album, Agents of Fortune, (Don’t Fear) the Reaper, was released on this date.



(Don't Fear) The Reaper was written and sung by Blue Öyster Cult's lead guitarist, Donald Roeser, also known as Buck Dharma. It was rumored to be about suicide, but it actually deals with the inevitability of death and the belief that we should not fear it. When Dharma wrote it, he was thinking about what would happen if he died at a young age and if he would be reunited with loved ones in the afterlife.

And don't forget -



Everything sounds better with more cowbells!


July 31, 1977 -
For a reason only known to CBS executives, the one hit wonder group Starland Vocal Band's show, The Starland Vocal Band Show debuted on CBS TV on this date.



The band started out as John Denver's backup group. The comedy was provided primarily by veteran D.C.-based satirist Mark Russell and David Letterman, who got his first national exposure with this program.


July 31, 1987 -
Timothy Dalton took on the mantle of James Bond in the John Glen helmed, The Living Daylights, also starring Maryam d'Abo and Joe Don Baker, which premiered in the US on this date. (Depending on how you are counting, this was the fifteenth entry in the film series.)



A stuntman was originally going to play the role of The Impostor, the Russian assassin in Gibraltar at the beginning, but after watching rushes, director John Glen decided that they needed a real actor for the part, and it was given to Carl Rigg. At the time, Rigg was out of work and staying home, taking care of his baby, while his wife was away on business. Upon getting the call, Rigg left the baby with a neighbor, left his wife a note telling her he'd gone to be in a James Bond movie, and caught the next plane to Gibraltar to start filming.


July 31, 1991 -
The Jim Abrahams spoof of Top Gun, Hot Shots!, starring Charlie Sheen, Cary Elwes, Valeria Golino, Lloyd Bridges, and Jon Cryer, premiered on this date.



During the eulogy scene, Lloyd Bridges mentioned the deaths of Moe Greene, Tataglia, Barzini, and the heads of five families. This is a reference to the movie The Godfather.


July 31, 1992 -
Miramax Films released the Mike Newell's film Enchanted April, starring Miranda Richardson, Josie Lawrence, Joan Plowright, Alfred Molina, and Jim Broadbent in the US on this date.



The film was made for British television in 1991, but was well-produced enough to be released in theaters in the United States in 1992.


Another unimportant moment. in history


Today in History:
July 31, 1485 -
Morte D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory, was first published on this date.



Malory wrote this classic tale of knightly love and chivalry while in prison for armed assault and rape.


July 31, 1790 -
Samuel Hopkins was issued the first patent for a process of making potash, potassium carbonate, an ingredient used in fertilizer. The patent was signed by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and President George Washington.

Since then, over 6 million patents have been granted by the US PTO.


July 31, 1944 -
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French aviator and author best know for his novella The Little Prince, went missing while flying in a Lockheed P-38 Lightning on a reconnaissance mission over Marseilles, on this date.



In the days and weeks that followed, various parties speculated that Saint Exupéry was shot down over the Mediterranean, had a flight accident, or even committed suicide. The latter theory grew out of the fact that the flyer had felt isolated from his squadron and was pessimistic about the future.


July 31, 1945 -
Wearing a stolen army uniform, prisoner John Giles attempted to escape from Alcatraz island by boarding an outbound cargo boat. But instead of San Francisco, the vessel heads for Angel Island, where Giles was promptly captured.



When attempting your escape from prison, do not attempt to save money by purchasing a round trip ticket. Please confirm that you have boarded the correct escape craft.


It was on this day in 1954 that human feet first stood upon the summit of Pakistan's K2, the second-tallest mountain in the world.

K2 was known to the Chinese as the "Great Mountain," and to Indian and Pakistani locals as "That Big Thing Over There." It wasn't until 1856, when T.G. Montgomerie of Britain's Survey of India was mapping the mountains of the Karakoram Range, that it was designated K2 - the second peak surveyed in the Karakoram. This helped distinguish it from K1, to its left, and K3, to its right.

(K1 was later named Mount Masherbrum. K3 moved to Arizona, where ICE agents became convinced the mountain was assisting underage children in sneaking across the border.)

It was an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio that first succeeded in reaching the peak of K2. Team members Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni achieved that distinction on July 31, 1954.

The summit wasn’t reached again until 1977, when a Japanese team - with more than 1,500 porters - found their way to the top.

The first American expedition reached the summit in 1978 - without the aid of a single porter.


July 31, 1948 –
At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport was dedicated by President Harry Truman on this date.



A 30 year old Congressman John F. Kennedy suddenly had a blinding headache that day and didn't know why.


July 31, 1964 -
The American space probe Ranger 7 transmitted the first photo moon’s surface ever taken by a U.S. spacecraft, mapping the surface for a future lunar landing, on this date. Ranger 7 carried six slow-scan vidicon TV cameras capable of transmitting high-resolution television pictures of the lunar surface.



A total of 4,308 photographs were taken before Ranger 7 crashed in Mare Cognitum (Sea of Clouds). The total cost of the mission was about $170 million (your tax dollars at work.)


July 31, 1966 -
The Beatles records were burned in Birmingham, Alabama on this date -- only because John Lennon innocently declared that the band happens to be "more popular than Jesus."



The record burning of course has the opposite effect, as sales of Beatles records dramatically increase (in part to burn them.)


July 31, 1971 -
One of the most expensive car rides occurred on this date,



Apollo 15 crew members, James B. Irwin and David R. Scott took the Lunar Roving Vehicle or "Moon Buggy" on its premiere jaunt on the surface of the Moon.


July 31, 1976 -
NASA released the famous Face on Mars photo taken by the Viking 1, on this date.

Later, after analysis of higher resolution photos from the Mars Global Surveyor, the face would be determined to be an optical illusion,



but until then, the face would spark imaginations and lead to rampant conspiracy theories.


Tomorrow is the festival of Lammas, an ancient harvest festival, (which we will have more to say about tomorrow.)



According to Shakespeare, Guiletta Capulet was born on "Lammas Eve at night," so Juliet's birthday is July 31st (sharing her birthday with Harry Potter and his creator, J. K. Rowlings.)


July 31, 1980 (I'm going with 1980 and not getting involved in the 1979 controversy) -
Harry Potter, an orphan who discovers that he is a wizard was born on this dates.



J K Rowlings, the Harry Potter brand author, and unfortunately loony bigot, shares a birthday with her creation (born 1965). Her 'children's stories' have made her a billionaire.

Who knew an orphaned kid with a facial birthmark could make someone so much money?


July 31, 2003 -
Felix Baumgartner, became the first man to glide across the English Channel without an aircraft when he jumped from a plane thirty thousand feet above Dover, England wearing carbon fiber wings attached to his back.

He glided 23 miles across the Channel in ten minutes at a starting speed of 220 mph and slowing to a speed of 135 mph. Baumgartner finished his flight using a parachute landing in Cap Blanc-Nez, France.



And so it goes.