O, wind, if winter comes,

can spring be far behind?

We are halfway between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, which is the scientifically correct way of saying it's the middle of winter, such as it is in the Northeast.



I used to hope that by the second half of Winter, we could coast to the start of Spring. Given what's going on in the country, I'd be happy if we could sprint towards the Mid-term elections in 270 days without any major disaster.


Today is Waitangi Day in New Zealand. This celebrates the February 6, 1840 signing of The Treaty of Waitangi by representatives of the British Crown and leading Maori chiefs in Waitangi. The treaty preserved many Maori rights while making New Zealand a British Colony.

Given the confused and confusing state of things, I must recommends that America join her Kiwi friends in celebrating Waitangi Day. There's no particular logic to this, but it's fun to say "Happy Waitangi Day." We could all wear funny hats and buy each other Waitangi presents.



Sound silly?

Just four days ago we were all waiting for a stupid rodent to crawl out of a hole and look for his shadow. In the Southern Hemisphere, Summer is winding down, which might have something to do with why today is Waitangi Day down there.)


Today is National Bubble Gum Day, celebrated on the first Friday in February. I wasn't really sure why but a little investigating led me to find out that children’s book author, Ruth Spiro, started the day to raise funds for school activities without the children having to sell something to family members, friends or neighbors. -



If chewing bubble gum is not your thing, I guess you could celebrate National Wear Red Day, also celebrated on the first Friday in February, but probably not for the reason Cher suggests.


Today is also National Working Naked Day (also celebrated on the first Friday in February). National Working Naked Day was founded by Lisa Kanarek in 2010. Lisa decided to create this day along with her own company, a brand called Working Naked, after she left a corporate job of over 20 years to start the new adventure of working from home. At the time, working from home was not the commonplace choice that it is today. In fact, Lisa has stated that she didn’t even let on that she was working from home for the first five years–for fear of not being taken seriously in her industry. It’s hard to fathom how much things have changed in the past decade or so.

You know what, please celebrate this one privately. Most of us don't need (or want to know) about it.


February 6, 1921 -
The Kid, starring Charlie Chaplin and 6-year-old Jackie Coogan (Uncle Fester), was released in the US on this date.



The production company tried to cheat Charles Chaplin by paying him for this six-reel film what they would ordinarily pay him for a two-reel film, which was about $500,000. Chaplin took the unassembled film out of state until the company agreed to the $1.5 million he was supposed to be paid, plus half the surplus profits on rentals, along with reversion of the film to him after five years on the rental market.


February 6, 1965 –
The Righteous Brothers song You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ hit No. # 1 on the Billboard charts on this date.



The husband-and-wife songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil wrote this song at the request of Phil Spector, who was looking for a hit for an act he had just signed to his Philles label: The Righteous Brothers. Phil Spector produced this song using his famous "Wall of Sound" recording technique. Spector got a songwriting credit on the track, as he usually demanded one around this time and had the clout to get it.


February 6, 1966 -
No amount of sweet tea, fresh hay or willing fillies could induce Bamboo Harvester (yes, I know he was a gelding,) to go on and the final episode of Mister Ed, Ed Goes to College aired on CBS TV on this date.



Mister Ed's ability to talk was never explained and rarely contemplated on the show. In the first episode, when Wilbur expresses an inability to understand the situation, Mister Ed offers the show's only remark on the subject: "Don't try. It's bigger than both of us!"


February 6, 1981 -
Daniel Petrie's policier, Fort Apache, The Bronx, starring Paul Newman, Ed Asner, Ken Wahl, Danny Aiello, and Pam Grier opened amid much controversy in the US, on this date.



During production residents of the Bronx protested the film claiming it would show show only the Bronx badly and ignore the good qualities. Moreover, local Bronx community groups also allegedly threatened to sue the production because of the way the picture was going to depict the Bronx and its ethnic minorities such as African Americans and Puerto Ricans. Because of this, the picture starts with a disclaimer in the prologue and script changes to the screenplay were made.


February 6, 1981 -
For some unknown reason, ABC gave the go-ahead for this sequel of The Brady Bunch, The Brady Brides, which premiered on this date. (The show barely lasted a season.)



This was the only Brady show in sitcom form to be filmed in front of a live studio audience.


February 6, 1982 –
The J. Geils Band song Centerfold hit No. #1 on the Billboard charts on this date.



The J. Geils Band signed with Atlantic Records in 1970 and made a name for themselves as a great live act with a blues-based sound. Centerfold was a musical departure for the band - a new wave sound similar to what The Cars and The Police were doing. It was also their biggest hit, earning them a slot touring with The Rolling Stones, the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, and heavy rotation on the new cable network MTV.


February 6, 1992 -
David Letterman's Late Night's 10th Anniversary Show at Radio City Music Hall aired on NBC TV, on this date.



Bob Dylan was the musical guest. He was backed by Paul Schaefer and the World’s Most Dangerous Band, and a collection of back-up singers that included Roseanne Cash, Nancy Griffith, Emmylou Harris, Michelle Shocked, and Mavis Staples, as he plays Like a Rolling Stone.


Another Unimportant Moment in history


Today in History:
February 6, 1911 -

That great American, Ronald Reagan, who appeared in such films as Jap Zero, Girls on Probation and Bedtime for Bonzo, was born in Tampico IL on this date.



It should be a national holiday (or a day of great national shame.)


February 6, 1917 -
Getting divorced just because you don't love a man is almost as silly as getting married just because you do.



Zsa Zsa Gabor, Queen of Outer Space was born in Budapest on this date. Party girls everywhere are celebrating their patron saint's day. Think of how awkward it must be for her to run into the gaggle of men that were her husbands in the afterlife.


It was on this date in 1919 that the German constituent assembly met in Weimar for the first time to declare itself The Official German Government For The Time Being.



This Weimar Republic, as it came to be known, should not be confused with the Weimar Republic fashion clothing outlet found in many American malls. The former caused an economic depression, Hitler, and the horrors of the Second World War. The latter caused a slight dip in sales at Banana Republic and Old Navy.


February 6, 1928 –
Immigrants from Europe arriving in New York City was nothing unusual in the 1920s, but a young woman calling herself Anastasia Tschaikovsky was different, marking her arrival on US soil with a press conference. She claimed to be the youngest daughter of the murdered czar of Russia and arrived in New York City to receive surgery on her broken jaw, an injury she said she had got from a Bolshevik soldier as she escaped the massacre of her family in Yekaterinburg, nine years earlier.



Controversy swirled around her and her claim that she was Anastasia Romanova, throughout her life until her death in 1984. In 1991, DNA evidence indicated she wasn’t a Romanov, although there are some who question the validity of those results.


February 6, 1937 –
Which way did he go, George? Which way did he go?







Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men, the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers in California during the Great Depression, was published on this date.


February 6, 1943 -
In like Flynn.

Omnisexual, possible neo-nazi, actor Errol Flynn was acquitted of raping an adolescent on this date. The woman had actually tried this shakedown with other celebrities and wasn't quite an adolescent despite her testifying with pigtails and a lollypop.


February 6, 1945 -
Today is Bob Marley Day in Jamaica and Ethiopia. Bob Marley, musician, singer-songwriter and Rastafarian was born on this date.



How can your day not be a little brighter.


February 6, 1951 –
The Broker, a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train, derailed near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, on this date, killing 85 people and injured over 500 more.



The accident remains New Jersey's deadliest train wreck, the deadliest U.S. derailment since 1918, and the deadliest peacetime rail disaster in the United States.


February 6, 1952 -
Elizabeth II became Queen upon the death of her father George VI (who had been ill for some time and died in his sleep from a coronary thrombosis), on this date (she was on the job for 70 years.)



At the exact moment of succession, she was in an observation post at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya.



Talk about bizarre ways you can land a job - Elizabeth went up a tree a princess and came down a Queen.


February 6, 1971 -
Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard becomes the first person to hit a golf ball on the Moon on this date.



Near the end of the second moonwalk and just before entering the lunar module for the last time, Shepard attaches a six-iron to the end of a sample collecting tool and hits two golf balls. The first lands in a nearby crater. He hits the second one squarely, and, in the one-sixth gravity of the Moon, Shepard says that it travels “miles and miles and miles.”


Before you go - another preview of more Super Bowl commercials. Surprise, there will be a bunch of beer commercials:





A lot of beer is going to pass through a lot of people this weekend.


One more thing - There are 297 days until Cyborg Monday -



Plan accordingly



And so it goes

Everyone should support their local weatherman

Today is National Weather Forecasters Day. It is observed on February 5 to commemorate the birthday of John Jeffries, one of the first people in America to begin observing the weather in a scientific way.





The day was created to celebrate meteorologists, the men and women who predict - Dark. Turning partly light by morning.


I apologize that I forgot - I had to borrow Mr. Peabody's Wayback Machine to post this: International Clash Day is on February 5 unless the date falls on a Saturday or Sunday.

It is never celebrated on a weekend, and this year, it took place on February 5 (I promise I won't forget next year.).



In 2013, KEXP in Seattle, wanted to recognize the band's legacy of championing the opposed and striving for the possibility of a better world. Apparently, the day has evolved into a worldwide celebration of the issues and message they stood for.

Who knew?


February 5, 1927 -
Buster Keaton's movie The General premiered on this date. Keaton's picture received both poor reviews by critics and weak box-office results when it first opened.



The General was Buster Keaton’s favorite film and is now considered a late great of the silent era though was poorly received at its release. The cold reception the film received meant it was the last film in which Keaton had such artistic control over his content.


February 5, 1936 -
Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp makes his final silent-film appearance, Modern Times, which was released on this date.



The film originally ended with Charles Chaplin's character suffering a nervous breakdown and being visited in hospital by the gamin, who has now become a nun. This ending was filmed, though apparently only still photographs from the scene exist today.


February 5, 1944 -
The first appearance of a Marvel superhero outside a comic, Captain America serial film starring Dick Purcell, premiered on this date.



But how did you find out about my vibrator? (Just listen for it about 4:55 in)

Marvel Comics gave the rights to Captain America to Republic Pictures for free, in the hopes that the exposure would increase sales of the Captain America comic book.


February 5, 1953 -
Walt Disney's 14th animated feature, Peter Pan, opens at Roxy Theater, on this date. This was the last Disney film released through RKO, as Walt Disney established his own distribution company, Buena Vista Distribution, by the end of 1953.



Though the film was a modest success, Walt Disney himself was dissatisfied with the finished product, feeling that the character of Peter Pan was cold and unlikable. However, experts on J.M. Barrie praise this as a success, as they insist that Pan was originally written to be a heartless sociopath.


February 5, 1956 -
Don Siegel subversive take on 50's Communist paranoia, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, premiered on this date.



Production designer Ted Haworth came up with a fairly simple and inexpensive (about $30,000 total) idea for creating the pods. The most difficult part was when the pods burst open, revealing the likenesses of the actors. The actors had to have naked impressions of themselves made out of thin, skin-tight latex. Making the casts, which involved being submerged in the very hot casting material with only a straw in their mouths to breathe through, was grueling for the actors, especially Carolyn Jones, who was claustrophobic. Dana Wynter recalled, "I was in this thing while it hardened, and of course it got rather warm! I was breathing through straws or something quite bizarre, and the rest of me was encased, it was like a sarcophagus. The guys who were making it tapped on the back of the thing and said, 'Dana, listen, we won't be long, we're just off for lunch [laughs]!' In the end, we had to be covered except for just the nostrils and I think a little aperture for the mouth."


February 5, 1967 -
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour premiered on CBS-TV, on this date.



Mom actually liked both of them equally.


February 5, 1969 -
ABC premiered a television pilot for a comedy series titled Turn-On, on this date. The cast included Teresa Graves, Hamilton Camp, Mel Stewart, Chuck McCann, and guest host Tim Conway. The show was cancelled while it was on the air, making it one of the shortest runs of any program.





The station manager of WEWS, Cleveland's ABC affiliate, pulled the show off the air after 15 minutes. The remainder of the time slot was a black screen with live organ music, an emergency procedure that hadn't been used in over 20 years.


February 5, 1983 -
The Toto single off their album Toto IV, Africa, went to No. 1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.





The video was directed by Steve Barron, who also did Rosanna and many other early MTV favorites. Toto was one of the few American bands that was making videos even before MTV, and after the network launched in 1981, their Barron-directed clips earned them lots of exposure.


Another little known Monopoly card.


Today in History:
Today is Liberation Day in San Marino.

Americans remain woefully misinformed about San Marino. (American remain woefully misinformed about most countries that aren't located between Canada and Mexico.)

It's not only Liberation Day in San Marino, but, it's also the feast day of St. Agatha -

(patron saint of breast cancer survivors - but again, I digress ...)

About seventeen-hundred years ago, during an epic game of hide and seek, Marinus the Stonemason ran up Mount Titano in Italy to hide from the Roman Emperor Diocletian. It was a good hiding spot and he was never found. He started his own country to pass the time, and the Republic of San Marino survives to this day, an island of foreign nationals in the middle of Italy.

Citizens of are not San Mariners. They are Sammarinese.

The population of San Marino is about 25,000. The population of San Marino, California, is about 13,000.

The California town was named in 1878 by James de Barth Shorb, who had built his home there and didn't think people would go for Shorbtown. Instead, he named it after the Maryland town in which he'd been born.

That was reportedly San Marino, Maryland, which the California town's website claims to have been named "for the tiny European republic."

There is no Maryland town named San Marino. (If there is, they haven't yet made their presence felt on Google.) Foul play is obviously afoot.

Proceed with caution.


February 5, 1556 -
Henry II of France and Philip of Spain signed a truce at the Abbey of Vaucelles, calling a halt to this phase of the long-running Habsburg-Valois conflict

But you don't give a rat's ass.


February 5, 1783 -
A large earthquake in Calabria, Italy left 50,000 dead on this date.

Luckily none of my wife's or a friend of mine's forebearers were involved or they wouldn't be here.


February 5, 1816 -
Rossini's opera Barber of Seville premieres in Rome on this date.







It was one of the earliest Italian operas to be performed in America and premiered at the Park Theater in New York City on November 25 1825.


February 5, 1914 -
William Seward Burroughs II, junkie, novelist, murderer, painter, professional sodomist and performer was born on this date.



Except for a couple of blots on his CV, he is my hero (well him and Julia Child.)


February 5, 1919 -
Four of the leading figures in early Hollywood: Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith, incorporated to form their own company to better control their own work as well as their futures. The company was United Artist.



MGM reacquired its 100% stake in United Artists in 2011.


February 5, 1940 -
Hans Ruedi Giger, Swiss painter, sculptor, and set designer best known for his design work on the film Alien, was spawned on this date.



He had a very happy childhood.


February 5, 1941 -
The SS Politician wrecked off the coast of the Isle of Eriskay in the Hebrides on this date. It carried some 20,000 cases of whiskey, which the natives hid from customs agents.



The story was told in the 1947 book Whisky Galore by Compton Mackenzie. The book was made into a film in 1949 (and remade in 2017.) According to official files recently released by the British Home Office, there was nearly 290,000 ten shilling notes on board as well (this would be the equivalent of several million pounds at today's prices), not all of which was ever recovered.


February 5, 1952 -
NYC's first modern day Walk/Don’t Walk pedestrian signal signs were installed at 44th St & Broadway in Times Square, on this date. Each sign flashed “Walk” for 22 seconds, then “Don’t Walk” for ten seconds, before the “Don’t Walk” illuminated red for 58 seconds more.

The installation of this sign was inspired by the growing number of deaths resulting from pedestrian accidents. The use of these pedestrian traffic signs are still used today in order to make streets safer.


February 5, 1958 -
A B-47 returning from a simulated combat mission suffered a midair collision with an F-86, on this date. A Mark 15 Mod 0 hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb was purposely jettisoned by the crippled B-47 bomber off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, and has yet to be recovered.

The bomb, whether or not it contains a plutonium detonator (the Air Force has been hazy on this fact), has not been found: to repeat - a large object with some enriched uranium surrounded by four hundred pounds of TNT has gone missing for 60 years. (This is essentially a dirty bomb - a dirty bomb resting just off the shore of a vibrant United States port.)



Recovering the bomb and the enriched uranium inside would be a coup for any nation looking to skip a few steps to becoming a nuclear power, so one could return the Tybee Bomb, definitely no questions asked.


February 5, 1971 -
Apollo 14 manned lunar module Antares lands near the Fra Mauro region of the Moon, on this date.



Apollo 14 commander Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the fifth human to walk on the Moon with astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell.


Before you go - We're going to preview some of the commercials ahead of the Superbowl, this weekend -





I must ask - who in there right mind would chase after a keg of light beer? Now a keg full of Bombay Sapphire Gin, that's anther matter totally.



And so it goes

A sweater just makes everything better

Today is National Sweater Day in the United States and given how cold it is outside today, IT IS the best day to wear a sweater, striped of not.



The first Thurday in February is the best day to wear a sweater for our neighbor to the North. It is National Sweater Day in Canada this year is celebrated on February 5. (Some sources have us celebrating National Sweater Day with the Canadians but let's not start taking all of their things just yet.)



Since 2010, WWF has encouraged more than a million Canadians to show their support for limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by turning down their thermostats by the same amount (or more) and wearing their favorite sweaters to stay warm.


February 4, 1961 –
United Artists' film The Misfits, directed by John Huston, (written by Arthur Miller,) and starring Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift, went into general release on this date.



A doctor was on call 24 hours a day for both Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift during the filming because both were experiencing health problems with alcohol and medical stimulants. Ironically, Clark Gable died of a heart attack right after production ended. Marilyn Monroe blamed herself for Clark Gable's death. However it should be noted that Gable was already in poor health when filming began. He had been a chain smoker since his mid-teens, and until recently he had been a heavy drinker. Twice over the past decade he had suffered severe chest pains which could have been heart attacks.


February 4, 1966 -
The Rolling Stones released 19th Nervous Breakdown, on this date. It goes on to reach No.2 on both the US and UK charts.



The lyrics are an attack on spoiled brats who are given everything and are still unhappy. Jagger took pains to explain that the song was not autobiographical. Regarding the lyrical inspiration, he said, "Things that are happening around me - everyday life as I see it. People say I'm always singing about pills and breakdowns, therefore I must be an addict – this is ridiculous. Some people are so narrow-minded they won't admit to themselves that this really does happen to other people besides pop stars."


February 4, 1970 -
Twentieth Century Fox's film Patton, directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, (written by Francis Ford Coppola,) and starring George C. Scott premieres in New York on this date.



The movie begins without showing the 20th Century-Fox logo, or any other indication that the film is starting. At military bases across the US theater owners reported that soldiers in the audience would often stand up and snap to attention when they heard the movie's opening line ("Ten-hut!"), assuming it to be a real call to attention.


February 4, 1977 -
American Bandstand 25th Anniversary Special airing in primetime on ABC-TV on this date.

(Sorry for the quality of the video)

The show features one of the first "all-star jams," as Chuck Berry is joined by Greg Allman, Junior Walker, The Pointer Sisters, Charlie Daniels and several others on a performance of Roll Over Beethoven.


February 4, 1977 -
Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album was released 49 years ago on this date - Bunkies, we are old.



Many of the songs on the album show a darker side in the lyrics. It's asking you to move on, leave the singer alone. Fleetwood Mac was experiencing the shatter of all of their emotional ties with not one, not two, but three break-ups! That was the divorce of the McVies, Buckingham and Stevie Nicks breaking up, and Fleetwood going through a divorce from his wife.

This was another album my sister and I wore the needle on the record player out on.


February 4, 1979 -
Co-Ed Fever, one of the three series that attempted to capitalize on the success of the motion picture National Lampoon's Animal House, (the others were ABC's Delta House and NBC's Brothers and Sisters,) had a special preview on CBS-TV on this date.



The show had such poor ratings that it was cancelled before it's scheduled premiere date of February 19. The show has been ranked no. 32 on TV Guide's 50 Worst Shows of All Time.


February 4, 1984 –
British group Culture Club second song released off their second album, Colour by Numbers, Karma Chameleon reach No. #1 on the Billboard charts on this date.



Songwriting in Culture Club was mostly a group effort, with Boy George writing the lyrics. Many of his words were inspired by his relationship with the group's drummer, Jon Moss, with whom he had an affair during the height of the group's fame. George admitted that their first single Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? was about Moss, and their difficult lover-professional relationship was the inspiration for the line, "You're my lover, not my rival" in Karma Chameleon. The relationship was hidden to the public and Jon never admitted it during the '80s, so in a way Boy George was communicating with him through their songs.


February 4, 2007 -

Can you make it rain harder?



Prince performed at Super Bowl XLI, in the pouring rain and giving what is arguably the greatest Halftime show performance on this date.


February 2, 2012 -
Adele becomes the first female British artist to have three #1 songs from the same album top the Billboard Hot 100 chart when Set Fire to the Rain hits the top spot, following Rolling In The Deep and Someone Like You from the album 21.



Many of the songs on 21 are about the heartbreaking ending of Adele's first real relationship. She told MTV News in an interview to plug the album's release: "It broke my heart when I wrote this record, so the fact that people are taking it to their hearts is like the best way to recover. 'Cause I'm still not fully recovered. It's going to take me 10 years to recover, I think, from the way I feel about my last relationship. It was the biggest deal in my entire life to date. He made me totally hungry. He was older, he was successful in his own right, whereas my boyfriends before were my age and not really doing much. And he got me interested in film and literature and food and wine and traveling and politics and history, and those were things I was never, ever interested in. I was interested in going clubbing and getting drunk."


Another episode of ACME's Little Known Animal Facts


Today in History:
February 4, 1861 -
State delegates met in Montgomery, Alabama, to form a Confederate government on this date.

They elected Jefferson Davis as president of Confederacy.



Do you think Hallmark has a card commemorating this event?


February 4, 1889 -
Harry Longabaugh was released from Sundance Prison in Wyoming, thereby acquiring the famous nickname, The Sundance Kid on this date.

Bunkies, this was the original version of Brokeback Mountain during the 60's


February 4, 1902 -
Isolationist, racist, neo-nazi and early environmentalist Charles Lindbergh, first man to fly solo across the Atlantic, was born on this date.



Kind of complicated guy, don't you think.


February 4, 1912 -
Franz Reichelt (alias The Flying Tailor) designed an overcoat to fly or float its wearer gently to the ground like the modern parachute. To demonstrate his invention he made a jump of 60 meters from the first deck of the Eiffel Tower, at that time the tallest man-made structure in the world.



The parachute failed and Reichelt fell to his death. The jump was recorded by the cameras of the gathered press. Winner of the 1912 Darwin Award.


February 4, 1913 -
People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically... No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in..



Rosa Lee Parks, civil rights activist whose refusal to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Alabama and helped started the Civil Rights Movement, was born on this date.


February 4, 1918 -
Nobody fucks with Ida Lupino



Ida Lupino, actress, director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers was born on this date.


February 4, 1948 -
Vincent Furnier (Alice Cooper), rocker and avid golfer, turns 77 today.



Yes, we're all not worthy.


February 4, 1972 -
Senator Strom Thurmond sent a secret memo, on this date, to William Timmons (in his capacity as an aide to Richard Nixon) and United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell, with an attached file from the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, urging that British musician John Lennon (then living in New York City) be deported from the United States as an undesirable alien, due to Lennon's political views and activism.



The document claimed that Lennon's influence on young people could affect Nixon's chances of re-election, and suggested that terminating Lennon's visa might be "a strategy counter-measure".


February 4, 1974 -
Patty Hearst heard the burst of Roland's Thompson gun, and bought it.



Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst, 19 years old, was kidnapped in Berkeley, California, by the Symbionese Liberation Army on this date.


February 4, 1983 -
Karen Carpenter died of anorexia nervosa on this date. She frequently took laxatives and induced vomiting to prevent weight gain.



At the time of her death she was pencil thin. Lead graphite thin.


February 4, 1987 -
Pianist/jewelry wearer Wladziu Valentino died in Palm Springs, California due to complications from AIDS on this date.



Nobody ever suspected the man was gay.


February 4, 1998 -
Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates was assaulted with a direct hit by a fluffy cream pie during a three-pronged attack in Brussels. He was in Belgium attending meetings with industry and government leaders.



Rumor is that the attack was engineered by Noel Godin, infamous for his other pie throwings at government officials.


February 4, 1999 -
In NYC, plainclothes police officers fired 41 shots at Amadou Diallo, a Bronx street peddler and immigrant from Guinea, who was unarmed in front of his Bronx home. Police were searching for a rapist and Daillo was killed with 19 gunshot wounds.



Officers Kenneth Boss, Sean Carroll, Edward McMellon and Richard Murphy were later indicted (but ultimately cleared) for 2nd degree murder.


February 4, 2004 -
Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard University student, launched "The facebook", as it was originally known, on this date; the name taken from the sheets of paper distributed to freshmen, profiling students and staff.



Within five years of its founding, Facebook had more than 500 million users. And if you think I'm going to say anything more, you're nuts.


On February 4, 2008, at 00:00 GMT, NASA transmitted the Beatles song Across The Universe in the direction of the star Polaris, 431 light years from Earth. The transmission was made using a 70m antenna in the DSN's Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex, located outside of Madrid, Spain. It was done with an "X band" transmitter, radiating into the antenna at 18 kW. (This may be on the test.)



In case our overlords on Nibiru are Radiohead fans, here's a tune for them



Should our alien overlords come from Planet X, hopefully David Bowie will plead our case, now that he is back home.



And so it goes