Words to live by ...

Let this be the motto of all the soon to be unemployed - I'm Conan O'Brien and I'm three days away from the biggest drinking binge in history. Who knew Conan knows my father-in-law, whose life's motto is, Better drunk and not sick.

It sounds less alcoholic in Italian.


January 20, 1956 -
Bill Maher, actor, comedian, political analyst and professional pot smoker, was born on this date.





Can't wait for the new season of Real Time to begin in February


January 20, 1949 -
Another classic film from the writer/ director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, A Letter to Three Wives, premiered on this date.



Although never seen, Celeste Holm's Addie Ross hovers over everything in the film.


Here is your Today in History -
Jimmy Naismith was born in Ramsay township in Ontario, Canada in 1861. He grew up and eventually went to McGill University in Montreal. He became their Athletic Director and in 1891 he moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, to take a post at the YMCA Training School. It was there that he was confronted with the problem of developing a game that could be played indoors and in relatively little space.

On January 20, 1892, with only two peach baskets, a soccer ball, and a hand-written list of 13 rules, Dr. Naismith oversaw the world's first full game of a brand new sport, a sport that took its name from the peach baskets and soccer ball used to play it.

He had finally invented Peach Soccer (as opposed to Peachbasket - see January 15.)


January 20, 1936 -
King George V of England is euthanized with injections of cocaine and morphine, after a painful cancer illness. His final words, a mumbled God damn you!, were addressed to his nurse when she gave him a sedative before his final lethal injection. His physician was motivated not only to ameliorate the king's suffering, but also to break the story in the morning edition of the newspapers, rather than the less appropriate evening journals.

Remember kids - Promptness is the politeness of kings.



At the procession to George's Lying in State in Westminster Hall, as the cortege turned into New Palace Yard, the Maltese Cross fell from the Imperial Crown and landed in the gutter. The new King, Edward VIII, saw it fall and wondered whether this was a bad omen for his new reign.

He would abdicate before the year was out.


January 20, 1920 -
Federico Fellini, director, screenwriter, producer, painter and cartoonist, was born on this date.











My favorite quote about Fellini - comes from his manager and goes something like this - Fellini's going to make the film because he doesn't want to give back the money.



And so it goes.