The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity.

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



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


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

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


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

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


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



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


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



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


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





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


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



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


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



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


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

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



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


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





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


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



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


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



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


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





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


Word of the Day


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



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

So now you know why.


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

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

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



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


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

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


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



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


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



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



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


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



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

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


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



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


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

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


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



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



And so it goes.

 

Bodhisattva, would you take me by the hand?

It's Nirvana Day (for some people),

no, it's not the day you wear your flannel shirts and listen to grunge music; it's the day Buddha died and achieved bliss (Parinirvana.) Some celebrate the day on February 8, others in Bhutan, it is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the fourth month of the Bhutanese calendar.


Today is also the ancient Roman feast of Lupercalia.



This was a fertility festival in honor of the pastoral god Lupercus.


Hopefully you had a very nice time yesterday and didn't get any of these gifts:



Or perhaps, much like Lewis, you're not fond of the holiday



OK, swipe you nose, wash you face and get back out there.


February 15, 1950 -
Walt Disney's 12th animated feature, Cinderella was premiered in Boston, Massachusetts on this date.



Ilene Woods beat exactly 309 girls for the part of Cinderella, after some demo recordings of her singing a few of the film's songs were presented to Walt Disney. However, she had no idea she was auditioning for the part until Disney contacted her; she initially made the recordings for a few friends who sent them to Disney without telling her.


February 15, 1975 –
Linda Ronstadt's song You’re No Good went to No. # 1 on the Billboard charts on this date.



This song had been around for a while before Linda Ronstadt took it to the top of the chart. It was originally recorded by Dee Dee Warwick in 1963. Her version was produced by the famous team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, but it stalled at #117. Betty Everett had more success with her version, which went to #51 in 1964.


February 15, 1979 -
There's no real reason to post this except that it really occurred - The Temple City Kazoo Orchestra appeared on the Mike Douglas Show, on this date.



(In case you don't know, members Harold Bronson and Richard Foos are the founders of Rhino Records.) Hopefully that made your day a little better.


February 15, 1985 -
Don't you forget about me -

Universal Pictures released John Hughes' film (and introduced the Brat Pack to an unsuspecting world), The Breakfast Club, starring, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy on this date.



It was originally suggested that there would be several sequels to this movie, occurring every ten years, in which The Breakfast Club would get back together. This did not come to pass, due to the volatile relationship between John Hughes and Judd Nelson (John Bender). Hughes stated that he would never work with Nelson again. Also, it was unclear whether or not Hughes still held ill will against his oft-cast starlet, Molly Ringwald (Claire Standish). They had a falling out in the late eighties, after Ringwald decided to move on from the teen film genre to pursue more adult roles, thus severing her relationship with Hughes.


February 15, 1987 -
Broadcast over the course of seven nights, Amerika, premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



Amerika sparked much controversy from many camps long before it even aired. Many liberals dismissed the mini-series as right wing paranoia, while many conservatives complained that the Soviet brutality that was depicted was seriously underplayed. Several re-writes and production delays resulted. Many objected to it on the basis that it could damage American-Soviet relations. The United Nations publicly objected to the depiction of United Nations Peacekeeping Forces as a Soviet controlled occupying force.


February 14, 1998 -
The Fox Broadcasting Company aired the 914th episode of The Simpsons, Das Bus, on this date.

In the episode, Bill Gates offers to buy out Homer’s Internet start-up, Compu-Global-Hyper-Mega-Net. Instead of actually buying the company, two of his goons trash the office.



To suggest that Microsoft would actual do such a thing is ridiculous, and dangerous.


February 15, 2005 -
The Norah Jones mellow, jazzy album Come Away With Me is certified Diamond for sales of over 10 million in America on this date.



The Come Away With Me album is a rare massive seller with no big hits. The only song to land in the Hot 100 was Don't Know Why, which made #30. The single, Come Away with Me was the third single, released in December 2002 after the album had been out for nine months. By this time, it has already sold millions of copies, but many were just discovering it.


Another album from the discount bin of The ACME Record Shoppe


Today in History -
Galileo Galilei was born on February 15, 1564. He worked on the improvement of a telescope with which he later discovered craters on the moon, the satellites of Jupiter, and every luscious detail of the girl next door's nubile young form. Galileo's astronomical observations seemed to confirm Copernicus' theory that the Earth went around the Sun rather than the other way around. Unfortunately, Copernicus' theory was heresy and therefore not supposed to be confirmed.



The church was in a tough spot. Galileo was every bit as Bad and Heretical as Copernicus had been, but they didn't want to inspire a bunch of angry Germans to start another church, as Martin Luther's followers had not long after the church's previous brush with Astronomy.

High-ranking church officials pleaded with the astronomer: "Come on, Galileo." "Please, Galileo." "Knock it off, Galileo."

But he wouldn't stop talking about the Earth spinning around the Sun. He couldn't even be persuaded to talk about something else, such as sports, the weather, or the girl next door's nubile young form. So they threatened to kill him.



At this point Galileo remembered that the Sun actually did revolve around the Earth, and the church rewarded his improved memory by giving him free room and board for the rest of his life (a level of hospitality sometimes referred to as "house arrest".)


February 15, 1758 -



Mustard was first advertised for sale in America on this date, by Benjamin Jackson who had set up business in Globe Mills, Germantown, Philadelphia, selling mustard packed in glass bottles with his label on them.



In the Philadelphia Chronicle, he claimed to be "the original establisher of the mustard manufactory in American, and ... at present, the only manufacturer on the continent," and that he had brought the art with him from London to America. (And don't worry, I'm sure that clown is long dead by now.)


February 15, 1882 -
Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open.....



John Barrymore, noted thespian and alcoholic, was born into the bosom of his famous theatrical clan on this date.


February 15, 1898 –

The battleship U.S.S. Maine blew up in Havana Harbor on this date, commencing a splendid little war against Spain that ends with Cuba under martial law and the United States owning a colonial empire.



The situation is immortalized in the film Citizen Kane with the lines, "You supply the prose poetry. We'll supply the war."


The first teddy bear was introduced in America by two Russian immigrants, Morris and Rose Michtom, who own a toy and novelty store in Brooklyn, New York on this date in 1903.



While bear hunting in Mississippi in 1902, President Teddy Roosevelt decided to spare the life of a bear cub which had been orphaned during the hunt. The event was the subject of a cartoon in the Washington Post seen by the Michtoms. Inspired by the cartoon, Mrs. Michtom made a toy bear which became enormously popular with the public in short order.

Now you know.


February 15, 1933 -
President-elect Franklin Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami on this date. Giuseppe Zangara, an unemployed New Jersey bricklayer from Italy, fired five pistol shots at the back of President-elect Roosevelt's head from only twenty-five feet away.



While all five rounds missed their target, each bullet found a separate victim. One of these was Mayor Anton Cermak of Chicago. Gunman Giuseppe Zangara was executed a little more than four weeks later, on March 20, 1933.


February 15, 1936 -
At a speech in Berlin on this date, Hitler confronts German industry with the challenge of creating the Volkswagen.



Thus Ferdinand Porsche designed the Beetle which is now widely seen as the final solution to fahrvergnugen.


February 15, 1961 -
The U.S. figure skating team is obliterated when Sabena Flight 548 crashes in Belgium on this date.



The crash was the first fatal accident involving a Boeing 707 in regular passenger service.


February 15, 1995 -
Kevin Mitnick, at the time the most wanted computer hacker in history, was arrested in Raleigh, North Carolina for various offenses, one of which was breaking into security specialist Tsutomu Shimomura's computer on this date.

Mitnick now runs Mitnick Security Consulting, a computer security consultancy.

Kids, sometimes, crimes does pay.


February 15, 2005 -
You Tube, the video-sharing website, was launched by three former PayPal employees on this date. The first video was uploaded on April 23, 2005.



I can't confirm that most videos posted on You Tube are any more interesting than the one posted above.


February 15, 2013 -
Chubby Checker was awarded an undisclosed amount in a lawsuit against Hewlett Packard on this date, for naming a penis measuring app after him.



The settlement agreement was never disclosed, and neither side has accepted liability, but Hewlett-Packard has apparently agreed not to use the singer’s stage name, related trademarks, or likeness on their products.

(A personal aside to Mr. Evans - while ones name means everything, a large settlement can be a balm to you, in your retirement years.)


Before you go - you may not know this but -



It's Annoy Squidward Day. So, should you see him, remember to annoy him.



And so it goes.

The best thing to hold onto in life is each other

(I'm so sorry - an unedited version of this was accidentially posted last night.)

We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving.

Happy Valentine's Day bunkies





Remember to enjoy the day and don't eat too much chocolate. And don't forget in NYC, in order to change one’s party enrollment for any primary election in 2026, your application must be received by the board of elections no later than today (I'm sure that piece of news will put you in the mood.)


For those of you not in a romantic mood today:
February 14, 1931 -
Just in time for the Valentine's Day holiday, Universal Pictures released Tod Browning's horror classic, Dracula, on this date.



A Spanish-language version, Drácula, was filmed at night on the same set at the same time, with Spanish-speaking actors.


February 14, 1962 -
First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, with her breathless voice, takes television viewers on a tour of the White House, on CBS TV, on this date. (Haven't you always found it strange that Marylin Monroe and Jackie Kennedy basically had the same voice?)



It was estimated that hundreds of millions of people saw the program, making it the most widely viewed documentary during the genre's so-called golden age.


February 14, 1963 -
Twentieth Century Fox releases the sci-fi film The Day Mars Invaded Earth, directed by Maury Dexter and starring Kent Taylor and Marie Windsor, to U.S. theaters on this date.



Filmed at Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, California. Two years after this film was made, The City of Beverly Hills purchased the mansion in 1965. It was made into a public park in 1971. Greystone mansion was also used in The Loved One, in which one portion of the grounds appeared as the swimming pool where John Gielgud's character hangs himself, and one of the property's garden walkways "portrayed" Poet's Corner in the massive cemetery called Whispering Glades.


February 14, 1969 -
The Star Trek episode Requiem for Methuselah first airs on this date. In it, the crew is confronted by a reclusive immortal on an isolated planet while searching for a cure to a rare disease. When the show repeated in September of that year, it was the last official telecast of the series to air on NBC during it's initial run.



This is one of many Star Trek productions resembling William Shakespeare's The Tempest and/or Irving Block's Forbidden Planet.


February 14, 1970  –
Sly & the Family Stone's song Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) and it's 'double A-side' Everybody Is a Star hit no. #1 on the Billboard charts at the same time on this date.





Sly Stone wrote this because he was upset that people were not listening to the messages in his songs even though the band was more popular then ever. They were an integrated band and tried to spread the message of racial harmony, but Stone thought that message was getting lost. The lyrics are scathing and mostly directed at Sly himself, but once again, many people lost the message in the powerful groove.


February 14, 1972 -
Starting on this date, The Mike Douglas Show broadcast a full week, five shows, with co-hosts John Lennon and Yoko Ono.



Mike Douglas described the experience this way: "It was probably the most memorable week I did in all my 20-something years on air." Although it wasn't all fun and games, two weeks after the show aired, the Nixon administration’s Immigration and Naturalization Service ordered Lennon out of the country.


February 14, 1987 –
The Bon Jovi song, Livin’ On A Prayer, hit No. 1 on this date.



Jon Bon Jovi wanted to leave Livin’ On A Prayer off the Slippery When Wet album, thinking it wasn't good enough. But, a chance meeting with a group of teenage fans changed his mind and it was added to the album.



February 14, 1991 -
Another fine film for Valentines Day - The Silence of the Lambs, based on the book by Thomas Harris, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, premiered in the US on this date.



The real-life FBI's Behavioral Science Unit assisted in the making of this movie. Jodie Foster spent a great deal of time with FBI agent Mary Ann Krause prior to filming. Krause gave Foster the idea of Starling standing by her car crying. Krause told Foster that at times, the work just became so overwhelming that it was a good way to get an emotional release.


February 14, 1992 -
Besides learning that we are all not worthy of being in Alice Cooper's presence, we learned that "Milwaukee" is Algonquin for "the good land," when Wayne's World, starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey premiered on this date.



Alice Cooper came to the set under the impression that he would be performing musically for the film, with one line. Upon arrival, he was surprised to be handed an entire monologue to memorize and shoot with a small amount of time to do so. However, Cooper is known to be a history buff outside of his music career.

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


Today in History:
February 14, 1400 -
... How some have been depos’d, some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed,
Some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping kill’d,
All murdered ...



King Richard II of England, who had been deposed in 1399, died mysteriously on this date.


February 14, 1779 -
English explorer Captain James Cook and some of his crew are slaughtered (and possibly eaten) by angry Hawaiian islanders, after he tried to take a Hawaiian chief hostage over a dispute regarding a stolen boat.



There was possibly a better way to get the deposit back on a boat.


February 14, 1823 -
In honor of the Duke of Wellington, England erected the first nude public statue since antiquity — an 18ft bronze Achilles, (created from the loot of the British victories in France, 33 tons of captured French cannons) — in London's Hyde Park on June 18, 1822.

It caused such uproar, a fig leaf was added on this date.


February 14, 1849 –
On this date, in New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.

The daguerreotype was taken by famous photographer Matthew Brady. (According to some sources, after delivering his 1841 inaugural speech, President Harrison posed for a daguerreotype. Harrison died after only 31 days into his term. That photograph, if it existed, has since been lost.)


February 14, 1929 -
The Capone gang killed six members of the Bugs Moran gang and one other person at the S.M.C. Cartage company in Chicago, in an event known as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Bogus police officers were used so that it appeared to be a routine police bust. Except for all the bodies.



The bloody St. Valentine's Day Massacre stirred a media storm centered on Capone and his illegal Prohibition-era activities and motivated federal authorities to redouble their efforts to find evidence incriminating enough to take him off the streets.


February 14, 1948 -
Raymond Joseph Teller (Teller) an illusionist, comedian and writer best known as the silent half of the comedy magic duo known as Penn and Teller, accomplished sleight of hand artist, painter, atheist, debunker, skeptic and Fellow of the Cato Institute was born on this date.



He legally changed his name to Teller and possesses one of the few United States passports issued in a single name.

Yeah, he can speak (you idiots.)


February 14, 1989 –
Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.



Still, 30 years later, threats against Salman Rushdie's life persist. Although mass protests have stopped, the themes and questions raised in his novel remain hotly debated.


February 14, 1990 -
The Pale Blue Dot photograph of planet Earth was taken on this date, by the Voyager 1 space probe from a record distance of about 3. 7 billion miles (6 billion kms).

In the photograph, Earth's apparent size is less than a pixel; the planet appears as a tiny dot against the vastness of space, among bands of sunlight scattered by the camera's optics.

We are truly but stardust.



And so it goes.