And no people were injuried in the making of this video.

The Penn Coach Yard chimney in the 30th Street Station railyards in Philadelphia, or the more colloquial term amongst students at Drexel University for the structure, the Drexel Shaft, was imploded on Sunday morning



Either this is emblematic of the decline of America or sometimes a cigar is just a good smoke.


November 17, 1942 -


Martin Scorsese, Academy Award-winning American film director, writer, producer, actor, film historian and asthmatic





November 17, 1933 -
The unbelievable box office flop (at the time), Duck Soup, opened on this date.



The film did so poorly when it opened, Paramount canceled the boys contract and MGM promptly signed them, where they produced two of their classic films, A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races.



(This film marks the last appearance of Zeppo Marx in a Marx Brothers film.)


November 17, 1951 -
Another in the series of Daffy and Porky buddy flicks, Drip-Along Daffy, opened on this date.



Slight pause while I adjust my acuetruments!


Today's word of the day -
Oncethmus: noun, braying. Stop your oncethmus, Joe - you're sounding like a jackass more and more every day.


Today in History -
November 17, 1558 -
Elizabeth I of England ascended to the throne, on this date.



She is best known for her imperfect application of the cosmetic sciences, a flaw that is strikingly evident in all her portraits but that courtiers were apparently reluctant to address.


November 17, 1796 -
Empress Catherine the Great dies of a stroke while sitting on the commode and not while astride her steed (or something like that) on this date.



So dammit, stop making those jokes.


November 17, 1903 -
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin's stubbornness split his Russian Social Democratic Labor Party into two factions: the slim majority who sided with him, and the vast minority who opposed him, on this date.



The Russian terms for majority and minority are Bolshevik and Menshevik, respectively, and so these factions took their names.

Later the Mensheviks became the majority party, meaning that the Mensheviks had become Bolsheviks and the Bolsheviks Mensheviks.

This was confusing. If you asked someone what they were and they said "Bolshevik," you'd have no way of knowing whether they meant Bolshevik (Menshevik) or Menshevik (Bolshevik). This state of affairs quickly became intolerable. All sorts of remedies were suggested — placards, ID bracelets, hats, tattoos—but it was impossible to arrive at a consensus until Lenin clarified matters by having all the Mensheviks shot.

It was easy after that.


November 17, 1968 -
NBC preempts the final 1:05 from a very close Jets-Raiders NFL football game with "Heidi". Two touchdowns were scored during this missing time.



Sports fans everywhere applaud and understand the network's decision.


November 17, 1973 -
"People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I am not a crook".



Thus spoke Richard M. Nixon on this date.



38 more shopping days until Christmas, 25 more shopping days until Hanukkah.

And so it goes