I'm not superstitious, but I am a little stitious.

A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere. - Groucho Marx

I'm sorry to tell you but it's Friday the 13th. If it gives you some comfort, today is the last Friday the 13th of this year.




In most large cities in the United States, many building don't have 13th floors. In Japan, they don't have 4th floors, because the word for four sounds similar to the word for DEATH! Some say that the modern basis for Friday the 13th phobia dates back to Friday, October 13, 1307.



On this date, Pope Clement in conjunction with the King Philip of France secretly ordered the mass arrest of all the Knights Templar in France. The Templars were terminated with extreme prejudice (burned to a crisp) for apostasy, idolatry, heresy, "obscene rituals" and homosexuality, corruption and fraud, and secrecy, never again to hold the power that they had held for so long.

Those wacky Knights were such party animals.

Nathaniel Lachenmeyer, author of 13: The Story of the World's Most Popular Superstition, suggests in his book that references to Friday the 13th were practically nonexistent before 1907; the popularity of the superstition must come from the publication of Thomas W. Lawson's successful novel (of it's day,) Friday, the Thirteenth. In the novel, a stock broker takes advantage of the superstition to create a Wall Street panic on Friday the 13th.


While he was host of Lorne Greene’s Wild Kingdom,



Lorne Greene had one of his nipples bitten off by an alligator.

I thought you might want to know

November 13, 1933 -
The pre-code horror classic, The Invisible Man, directed by James Whale, and starring Gloria Stuart, Claude Rains and William Harrigan, opened in the US on this date.



In order to achieve the effect that Claude Rains wasn't there when his character took off the bandages, James Whale had Rains dressed completely in black velvet and filmed him in front of a black velvet background.


November 13, 1937 -
The Looney Tunes short, Porky's Double Trouble, directed by Frank Tashlin and starring Porky Pig and Petunia Pig, was released on this date.



The last Porky Pig cartoon to feature him being large, while all of his latter cartoons feature him being slim.


November 13, 1940 -

Walt Disney's third animated film Fantasia, opened in New York on this date.



The filming of the final Ave Maria sequence was plagued by mishaps. To achieve the effect of moving through the scene, several panes of painted glass were used. The whole setup was over 200 feet long and had to be redone three times. The first time the wrong lens was placed on the camera, and the subsequent film showed not only the artwork but the workers scurrying around it. The second time around an earthquake struck the studio, and the shot was once again scrapped. The next morning the shot was redone, the film was shipped to the lab, processed and couriered to the premiere in New York where it was spliced into the final print with only four hours to spare.


November 13, 1943 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Inki and the Minah Bird, directed by Chuck Jones was released on this date.



This short (and four others in the Inki filmography) no longer airs on American television due to prominent African stereotyping..


November 13, 1954 -
Looney Tunes first 3D cartoon, Lumber Jack Rabbit, starring Bugs Bunny, premiered on this date.



Chuck Jones left Warner Brothers for four months over the production of this cartoon, which he felt was unsatisfactory. He went to Disney for those months, and worked on Sleeping Beauty, but eventually realized that, although he thought Walt Disney was an excellent producer, the company was not right for him. A famous meeting occurred when Disney told Jones "We can work out something for you" and Jones responded "Well, you have one job here that I want, and that's yours!" to which Disney said "I'm sorry, it's filled." It was the only time Jones left the company in a career that lasted over 25 years, until Jones was "let go" with the animation department in 1962.


November 13, 1965 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Hairied and Hurried, directed by Rudy Larriva and starring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, was released on this date.



Acme's mail order catalog is seen here...


November 13, 1987 -
John Boorman's semi-autobiographical recollections of World War II, Hope and Glory, starring Sarah Miles, David Hayman, Derrick O'Connor, Susan Wooldridge, Sammi Davis, Ian Bannen, and Sebastian Rice-Edwards, was released on this date.



This is the second World War II movie made by director John Boorman. The first had been Hell in the Pacific, and he later would make the war-related film, Beyond Rangoon.


November 13, 1971 -
Steven Spielberg's first full- length film, Duel, starring Dennis Weaver, debuted on ABC-TV on this date.



During the chase, a parked sedan resembling a squad car is seen, briefly raising Dennis Weaver's hopes, but it turns out to be a service car for a pest exterminator named Grebleips... "Spielberg" in reverse.


November 13, 1975 -
Morris Albert's song Feelings went gold on this date.



In 1987, Morris Albert was found guilty of plagiarism, with a jury finding that this borrowed heavily from a French song from 1956 called Pour Toi.



You can blame me later for this ear worm


November 11, 1976 -
Rod Stewart's Tonight's The Night, with some French cooing by his girlfriend Britt Ekland, hits #1 in America for the first of eight weeks.



The phrase "sex rock" entered the lexicon in 1975, thanks to an article in Time magazine about the rise of songs like this one that are clearly about a seduction. With the genre defined, various groups started protesting it, including Jesse Jackson's Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity). This song was a target and used as an example of one that was loosening the morals of young people.


November 13, 1987 -
Sonny & Cher were guests on NBC's Late Night with David Letterman and after a short interview the pair agreed to sing I Got You Babe for a delighted audience, on this date.



Clearly extremely comfortable with one another, the divorced pair happily sang together and couldn't hide their glee and they smiled broadly to one another during the entirely of the song.


November 13, 1991 -
The first animated film to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast premiered in Hollywood on this date.



Angela Lansbury (Mrs. Potts) thought that another character would be better suited to sing the ballad, "Beauty and the Beast." Directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise asked her to make at least one recording to have for a back-up; that one recording ended up in the movie.


November 13, 1993 -
Kate Bush's musical short film The Line, The Cross & The Curve (an extended music video featuring songs from Bush's album The Red Shoes) starring Kate Bush, Miranda Richardson and choreographer Lindsay Kemp, premiered at the London Film Festival on this date.



The film was released direct-to-video in most areas and was only a modest success. Soon after its release, Bush effectively dropped out of the public eye until her eighth studio album Aerial was released in November 2005.


Another unimportant moment in history.


Today in History:
While it is a particularly uneventful day in history, let us opine these words:

"The students are beyond control and their behavior is disgraceful. They come blustering into the lecture-rooms like a troop of maniacs and upset the orderly arrangements which the master has made in the interest of his pupils. Their recklessness is unbelievable and they often commit outrages which ought to be punishable by law, were it not that custom protects them."



People concerned about the pace of change in human affairs can find solace in knowing that these familiar sentiments were expressed about sixteen centuries ago by St. Augustine, who was born on November 13, 354 AD.



Like many other theological luminaries, Augustine began life as a debauched young man who sought his pleasures in wine, women, and song. Augustine admitted in his autobiography Confessions, that as a boy he "told lies to my tutors, my masters and my parents all for the love of games and the craving for stage shows." Eventually he became old and cranky and declared his youth wasted.



All of the things that occurred during the drunken orgies of his youth recounted in his Confessions do not hold a candle to the crap coming out of Washington DC.


November 13, 1789 -
Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to a friend in which he said, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

I would include, once again, "please accept the results of an election when they are certified."


November 13, 1927 -

The New York Holland Tunnel officially opened today, the first underwater tunnel built in the United States, providing access between New York City and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River, ushering in a massive wave of Dutch immigration (and more fools them - The tunnel was named after its chief engineer, Clifford Milburn Holland, who died of a heart attack on the operating table while undergoing a tonsillectomy, as a posthumous honor, starting the trend for the NY/NJ interstate crossings to have names with no relation to their geographic locations).



Although most of the Dutch returned to Holland after learning that New Amsterdam had become New York.


November 13, 1947 -
The AK-47 assault rifle development by Mikhail Kalashnikov in the Soviet Union was completed on this date. The rifle was one of the first assault rifles to be created.



Today, it is the most widely-used assault rifle in the world — more AK-47 models have been made than all other assault rifle models put together.


November 13, 1955 -
Happy Birthday Caryn



Whoopi Goldberg (Caryn Elaine Johnson) actress, comedienne, and television host, was born on this day.


November 13, 1965 -
Appearing on a late night live satire program called BBC3, critic Kenneth Tynan becomes the first man to say “Fuck” on TV.

A national fit of apoplexy follows with one Tory MP suggesting that Tynan should hang!


November 13, 1966 -
Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin became the first astronaut to successfully work in space without tiring, during the Gemini 12 flight. (Previous astronauts suffered from fatigue carrying out tasks during EVA).



Aldrin worked outside the Gemini craft for 2 hours and 6 minutes, demonstrating that astronauts could work outside their transport.


November 13, 1970
On November 13, Felix Unger was asked to remove himself from his place of residence; that request came from his wife. Deep down, he knew she was right, but he also knew that some day he would return to her. With nowhere else to go, he appeared at the home of his friend, Oscar Madison. - Announcer, The Odd Couple



Felix moves in with Oscar and so the story of the Odd Couple begins on this date.


November 13, 1971 -
The American space probe, Mariner 9, becomes the first space probe to orbit another planet when it enters into orbit around Mars on this date. The probe’s mission was to return photographs that would map seventy percent of the surface while conducting a study of the planet’s atmosphere.



Analysis of the data returned by the probe revealed that the planet is covered in dried river beds. Two Soviet probes achieved the same orbit about a month later.


November 13, 1974 -
Karen Silkwood, a technician and union activist at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron plutonium plant near Crescent, Okla., was killed in a 'car crash' while on her way to meet a reporter on this date.



The Kerr-McGee nuclear fuel plants closed in 1975. The grounds of the Cimarron plant were still being decontaminated more than 40 years later.


November 13, 1982 -
Maya Lin's simple yet elegant Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated on Veteran's Day to the veterans of the Vietnam War on this date (the memorial was opened to the public a few days earlier.) The memorial was built with polished granite, and it displays the names of over 60,000 veterans.



No federal funds were used to construct the wall. Private contributions from individuals, corporations, veterans and other organizations, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund raised almost $9 million.


It is the 11th anniversary of the deadly Paris attacks, massacring 130 people in the bloodiest terror attack in years.



Please take a moment out of your day to remember the victims and their families.


Before you go - Not that I shop there, (nor does anyone I know,) Prada hada nice holiday advert this year-



It's always wonderful to see hand drawn animation nowadays

And so it goes

Less drama — more pizza.

It's National Pizza with the Works (Except Anchovies) Day.

What's so wrong about anchovies?



(Well there is an old joke by George Carlin, but I'm not going to play it to you, you'll have to find it yourself, but I guess that would put me off anchovies.)


November 12, 1932 -
The Merrie Melodies short, A Great Big Bunch of You, directed by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising, was released on this date.



Besides the mannequin imitating Maurice Chevalier and Ted Lewis, the dancing coat racks are meant to evoke Joe Frisco, who did a similar high-step strut with a tilted derby, cane, and a cigar in his mouth.


November 12, 1949 -
The Looney Tunes short, For Scent-imental Reasons, directed by Chuck Jones and starring Pepe LePew, was released on this date.



This short marks the theatrical debut of Penelope Pussycat, though she wouldn't be officially named that until 1954's The Cats Bah, and, even then, the cat named Penelope in that cartoon did not look like the popular design for her (which actually was taken from this cartoon and 1951's Scent-imental Romeo),


November 12, 1955 -
The Looney Tunes short, Roman Legion-Hare, directed by Friz Freleng and starring Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam, was released on this date.



The lions in this cartoon previously appeared in 1955's Tweety's Circus, also a Freleng short.


November 12, 1960 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Dog Gone People, directed by Bob McKimson, and starring Elmer Fudd, was released on this date.



Hal Smith took over the voicing of Elmer in this cartoon due to Arthur Q. Bryan's death.


November 12, 1964 -
On his 19th birthday, Neil Young wrote Sugar Mountain, where he reflects on his fleeting youth ("You can't be 20 on Sugar Mountain"), the first formal release was a recording of the song made on November 10, 1968.



Joni Mitchell's The Circle Game was inspired by this song. As she explained to a live audience at The Paris Theatre in 1970, "Neil Young wrote this song that was called 'Oh to live on sugar mountain' which was a lament for his lost youth. And I thought, God, you know, if we get to 21 and there's nothing after that, that's a pretty bleak future, so I wrote a song for him, and for myself just to give me some hope. It's called 'The Circle Game.'"


November 12, 1976 -
Featuring a cast of 50 million, the very strange documentary All This And World War II, a collection of WWII newsreel footage, clips from other movies, and covers of Beatles songs, opens in US theaters on this date.



The film's director Susan Winslow was hired as she had been a researcher on the movie Brother Can You Spare a Dime which integrated film footage and 1930s newsreels with gramophone songs of that era. Her original role was as a researcher and to select footage but her contribution became so important she was named the film's director.


November 12, 1982 -
Robert Altman's low budget (and well received) adaptation of Ed Graczyk's play, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, starring, Sandy Dennis, Cher, Karen Black, and Kathy Bates premiered in NYC on this date.



Cher, Karen Black and Sandy Dennis reprised their roles from the stage production that played on Broadway at the Martn Beck Theatre in 1982. Robert Altman also directed this stage season.


November 12, 1992 -
The screamingly funny TV comedy Absolutely Fabulous, written by Jennifer Saunders, starring Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley premiered on the BBC on this date.



The inspiration for casting Joanna Lumley as Patsy came from a sketch on The Full Wax. There, Ruby Wax interviewed Lumley, where the actress (who had previously been seen as a prim and proper English rose) played herself as a drunk, cocaine-addicted, washed-up has-been.


November 12, 1993 -
Jane Campion's Oscar-winning film, The Piano starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel (and his penis), Sam Neill and Anna Paquin, was released in the US on this date.



Holly Hunter received three on-screen credits for the film, playing the character of Ada, playing the piano herself, and being a British sign language interpreter for Anna Paquin.


November 12, 2008 -
Danny Boyle's international hit, Slumdog Millionaire, starring Dev Patel and Freida Pinto went into limited release in the US on this date.



Longiness Fernandes was the choreographer of the dance sequence set to the song Jai Ho, which is played during the end credits. But his name was inadvertently left out in the credits of the film. Upset with this, Longiness skipped the preview parties. Danny Boyle was also upset over this mistake and promised Longiness that he would make it up to him, and did it in style. While accepting the Best Director Oscar, he admitted his mistake before the audience and thanked Longiness.


November 12, 2011 –
The Rihanna (featuring Calvin Harris) single, We Found Love became a No. #1 hit on the Billboard charts, on this date.



Part of the music video was shot in a field in the Northern Irish town of Bangor on September 26 and 27, 2011. The farmer who owned the land on which Rihanna was filming was shocked to have spotted her, half naked when he was walking to his tractor. He told BBC News: "I thought it was inappropriate. I requested them to stop and they did. I had my conversation with Rihanna and I hope she understands where I'm coming from. We shook hands." After being asked to leave the field, the singer continued to shoot the promo in Belfast.


November 12, 2016 -
Kate McKinnon sang Hallelujah in character as Hillary Clinton to open Saturday Night Live the Saturday after the 2016 presidential election.



Still oddly powerful and moving.


Another little known Monopoly card


Today in History:
King Cnut of England, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden died on this date in 1035. (Cnut is better known to most Americans as King Canute, which offers fewer typographical hazards.)



Cnut was the son of Svein Forkbeard, son of Harald Bluetooth, son of Gorm (now you know.) In 1013 Cnut's father conquered all of England from the Saxon King Aethelred but died anyway. This allowed Aethelred to take England back, which made it necessary for Cnut himself to reconquer England in 1016. He enjoyed this so much that he went on to conquer Scotland, Denmark, Norway, and part of Sweden, all of which came to be known collectively as Cnutland, perhaps explaining the region's subsequent popularity among European dyslexics.

This will be on the test.


November 12, 1859 -
The first flying-trapeze circus act was performed by Jules Leotard at the Circus Napoleon (later renamed Cirque d'Hiver) in Paris on this date.



His act caused a sensation in Paris, and soon other circus performers were trying out his technique. Leotard designed the garment that bears his name. Jules died at the age of 28 in Spain, leaving behind the famous Leotard and the art of flying trapeze.


November 12, 1912 -
The bodies of Captain Robert Scott and his men were found on the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica, frozen solid in one huge block of ice, on this date.



So he had literally become Scott of the Antarctic.


November 12, 1928 -
S. S. Vestris left New York November 10, 1928, with 129 passengers and 196 crew. The next day she ran into a severe storm and developed a starboard list, caused by a partially open coal port four feet above the water line



An SOS was sent out on November 12, some 200 miles off Hampton Roads, Virginia, and the ship was abandoned and after a few hours, the ship fell on her side and sank. Approximately 112 of the 325 onboard were lost (there was never a conclusive count - you know how it is during a disaster): all 13 children on board perished, as well as 28 of the 36 women.


November 12, 1933 -
Hugh Gray of the British Aluminum Company took five pictures of the Loch Ness Monster, the first known photos. Four the the five exposures were blank, and the remaining photo was later proven to be a hoax.

The brand of whiskey, Mr. Grey consumed has been lost in the ethers of time.


Early on the morning of November 12, 1942, Abe "Kid Twist" Reles, mob informer, then in protective custody, fell to his death from a hotel window. It is not known whether he was thrown or pushed out the window, or if he was trying to escape. The angle of trajectory suggests that he was, in fact, defenestration (my favorite word.)

Because of his mob status as a stool pigeon and the circumstances surrounding his death, Reles gained another moniker after his passing. In addition to "Kid Twist," Reles became known as "the canary who sang, but couldn't fly."


November 12, 1945 -
When you're young, you don't have any experience - you're charged up, but you're out of control. And if you're old and you're not charged up, then all you have is memories. But if you're charged and stimulated by what's going on around you, and you also have experience, you know what to appreciate and what to pass by.







Happy Birthday Neil Percival Young !!!


It was on this date in 1948 that former Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and seven others were sentenced to hang.



(This was back in the quaint old days, when the world considered it legal not only to have enemies, but to kill them after they tried to kill you.)


November 12, 1955 -
Today was one of the most event-filled dates in Hill Valley, CA history:

George McFly and Lorraine Baines kissed for the first time at the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance on this date. One week earlier, George's 'friend' Marty, had been struck by a car driven by Lorraine's father, Sam Baines, and Lorraine looked after him during his recovery. Lorraine accepted Marty's invitation to go the dance. Marvin Berry and the Starlighters played popular music during the entire dance, such as Night Train and Earth Angel. But none of this is the point of the story



During the famous Hill Valley Thunderstorm, a bolt of lightning strikes the Clock Tower at precisely 10:04 p.m., and it hasn't rung since.


November 12, 1980 -
NASA's space probe Voyager 1 reached Saturn on this day and sent photos of the planet's rings back to Earth, nearly a billion miles (about 1.6 billion km) away.

This was the first photograph of Saturn's rings were transmitted to Earth. OK you can get the laugh out - the ring around Uranus were photographed in 1986.

Before you go - I hadn't realized how many different supermarket chains there were in the UK - for the third year in a row, Salisbury has turned to Roald Dahl’s Big Friendly Giant or BFG -



Once again, please note, no humans were consumed during the making of this commercials. The BFG continues to forswear eating humans. (I must also comment again on the extraordinary dedication these delivery folks have.)



And so it goes

Knowing the true cost of war

At 5:00 a.m. on November 11, 1918 French Army clerk Henri Deledicq finished typing the peace treaty that would end World War I. He had put the carbon paper in backwards.



Ten minutes later, in a railroad car in France, military leaders signed copies of an armistice that were completely unreadable. World War I ended on this date. -



It's Veterans Day in the United States and Armistice Day for many in Europe -



(and it's Singles Day in China, 11/11- it's considered China's Anti-Valentine's Day, but we're not going to discuss that now.)


November 11, 397 -
St. Martin of Tours, another in the series of anorexic visionaries, patron saint of France, soldiers (he is known as the he man's saint), reformed alcoholics and winemakers, died on this date. When the armistice fell on the Saint Martin’s Day, November 11, 1918, the French people saw it was a sign of his intercession in the affairs of France.

Martin, after another one of his life long practice of fasting, has a dream about Jesus wearing the cloak he had recently given to a naked beggar. Pieces of Martin's actual 'cloak' were revered as holy relics and the derivation of the name of the priest who looked after these relics became 'chaplain'.

My father-in-law always reminded us that today is the day when the grapes you pressed and bottled turned into wine. That is not to say that he was discussing transubstantiation - which he and the old ladies in the back row of church saying their decades of the rosary clearly understood. But coincidentially - on November 11, 1215, The Fourth Lateran Council met on this date and adopt the doctrine of Transubstantiation, meaning that bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ.

This means all Catholics are essentially cannibals on a prescribed feeding schedule, but who am I to judge a theology of which I am a nominal member.

And now you know.


November 11, 1933 -
The Looney Tunes short, Buddy's Beer Garden, directed by Earl Duvall and starring Buddy, was released on this date.



This is the first cartoon to be directed by Earl Duvall, who was brought in along with Tom Palmer to replace Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising.


November 11, 1943 -
The under-appreciated wartime-drama Sahara, starring Humphrey Bogart premiered on this date.



For much of the production, the cast and crew were based in Brawley, CA, a small town about 40 miles from the filming location. At the time, Brawley offered little in terms of evening diversions, so Humphrey Bogart hosted many of his colleagues in his suite at the Planter's Hotel. Other cast members described Bogart as outgoing, generous and an adept bartender, but the late-night drinking meant that Bogart arrived on set hung over and quarrelsome. The behavior led to clashes with director Zoltan Korda.


November 11, 1947 -
Elia Kazan's searing expose of anti-Semitism, Gentleman's Agreement, starring Gregory Peck premiered in New York on this date.



When other studio chiefs, who were mostly Jewish, heard about the making of this film, they asked the producer not to make it. They feared its theme of anti-Semitism would simply stir up a hornet's nest about a problem which they preferred to handle quietly. Not only did production continue, but a scene was subsequently included that mirrored that confrontation.


November 11, 1950 -
The Looney Tunes short, Bushy Hare, directed by Bob McKimson and starring Bugs Bunny, was released on this date. (This short is seldom aired on US television because it is deemed offensive to Australian Aboriginal people.)



This is the first short involving Bugs Bunny visiting Australia, but the only time he visits the Australian mainland.


November 11, 1952 -
The Looney Tunes short, The Super Snooper, directed by Bob McKimson and starring Daffy Duck, was released on this date.



The anonymous redheaded femme fatale of this film is considered to be a redesigned version of Melissa Duck, Daffy's blonde love interest from The Scarlet Pumpernickel.


November 11, 1958 -
The (relatively unknown yet hysterical) British-comedy The Horse's Mouth, starring Alec Guinness, opened in the US on this date.



Alec Guinness felt that an educated accent for Gulley Jimson would be suited to an artist, but was not right for an eccentric. "So I tried to find a voice in which no one would be able to detect an accent of any sort, a kind of gritty, rough manner of speaking. When I found it, I felt myself free to just relax on that and say the lines as they came."

Do yourself a favor and watch this one.


November 11, 1959 -
The beginning of American independent cinema can be traced to this date when Shadows, directed by John Cassavetes, premiered in NYC.



Shot with a 16mm handheld camera on the streets of New York. Most of the dialog was improvised, while all the crew were fellow class members of John Cassavetes or volunteers.


November 11, 1961 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Beep Prepared, directed by Chuck Jones, and starring Wile E. Coyote and the road Runnerwas released on this date.



This was the only Oscar-nominated Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoon. The short lost to the Yugoslavian cartoon Surogat.


November 11, 1978 -
Donna Summer started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with her version of Jimmy Webb's MacArthur Park, which was also a hit for actor Richard Harris in 1968, (made No.5 in the UK). (Sorry for the earworm.)



Donna Summer recorded her disco version in 1978 with her producers, Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte. Moroder had been searching for a song to rework with Summer, and when Richard Harris' version of MacArthur Park came on the radio, he knew it was the one, perfect for Summer's vocal range. Packed with synthesizers, horns and washes of background vocals, Summer's version ran 8:27 and was the first part of the MacArthur Park Suite, which took up the entire D-side of her 1978 2-disc Live And More album.


November 11, 1985 -
One of the first major films dealing with AIDS, An Early Frost, starring Aidan Quinn, Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, and Sylvia Sidney, premiered on NBC-TV on this date.



Aidan Quinn (Michael) remembers that NBC's Standards and Practices department were a constant (in Quinn's words, "hovering") presence on the set. They regulated matters such as Quinn appearing in bed with D.W. Moffett (Peter) - they would not allow the two to be seen together in the characters' bed, only for Quinn to be in bed while Moffett sat, fully clothed, on its edge. Quinn says in the commentary that the censors were not only adamant that the two men were never allowed to kiss, but also that any physical contact between them had to be "balanced" by Michael's contact with his parents.


November 11, 2001 -
The Warner Bros. produced megahit based on the J.K. Rowling novel Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and just about every other English actor, premiered in NYC on this date.



Alan Rickman was hand picked to play Snape by J.K. Rowling, and received special instructions from her about character. Rowling even provided him with vital details of Snape's backstory, not revealed until the final novel.


Another episode of ACME's Little Known Animal Facts.


Today in History:
November 11, 1634 -
Following pressure from Anglican bishop John Atherton, the Irish House of Commons passes "An Act for the Punishment for the Vice of Buggery". Seven years later, the good Bishop Atherton is himself is found well hanged under the Act.

I guess the religious right has always been a little loose on this issue.


November 11, 1821 -
The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.



Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, Russian novelist who wrote Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, was born on this date.


November 11, 1862 -
Joe Green's (stage name - Giuseppe Verdi) Opera, La Forza Del Destino premiered in St Petersburg, Russia on this date.



La Forza Del Destino is an opera that many old school Italian singers felt was "cursed" and brought bad luck. The very superstitious Luciano Pavarotti avoided accepting a role in the opera for this reason.


November 11, 1920 -
One of the most famous tombs in Westminster Abbey is that of The Unknown Warrior. A tomb of an unknown British soldier who was killed on the battlefield during World War I. He was buried in Westminster Abbey on this date. (Another unknown soldier was buried on this date at the Arc de Triomphe in France.) The tomb is in the far western end of the nave and is covered by a slab of black Belgian marble. It is the only tomb in the abbey on which it is forbidden to walk.



One year after unknown soldiers were simultaneously buried at Westminster Abbey, London, and the Arc de Triomphe in France, President Warren G. Harding dedicated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (a white marble sarcophagus in Arlington National Cemetery.)



The tombstone itself, designed by sculptor Thomas Hudson Jones, was not completed until 1932, when it was unveiled bearing the description “Here Rests in Honored Glory an American Soldier Known but to God.” The World War I unknown was later joined by the unidentified remains of soldiers from America’s other major 20th century wars and the tomb was put under permanent guard by special military sentinels.


November 11, 1920 -
According to James Bond's authorized biography, the fictional Secret Service agent was born on this date. James Bond’s father was Andrew Bond, a Scottish businessman. His mother was Monique Delacroix, from Switzerland.



Both of his parents were killed in a mountain climbing accident during a holiday in the French Alps when he was only 11. He was educated at Eton, like his creator Ian Fleming.


November 11, 1922 -
Of course it is exhausting, having to reason all the time in a universe which wasn't meant to be reasonable..



WWII veteran, noted author, and (possible alien) Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was born on this date.


November 11, 1925 -
Well, the most terrible fear that anybody should have is not war, is not a disease, not cancer or heart problems or food poisoning - it's a man or a woman without a sense of humor.



Jonathan Winters, the great improvisational comedian and actor, was born on this date.


November 11, 1978 -

A perennial favorite suicide location, the renovated Hollywood Sign was unveiled, due in large part to the public campaign to restore the landmark by pornographer Hugh Hefner and shock rocker Alice Cooper.

The original sign was built in 1923, and said "Hollywoodland".


Before you go - Another UK department store is heard from - Argos, which is virtually unknown in the US, has a cute Christmas advert but I do have a thought -



Is it a sign of some sort of psychosis that one takes suggestions from toys.

And so it goes