The perfect gift

Now I know what to get Mr. Teeny (Louis Toot), my cigar chomping, roller skating monkey for his next birthday.



I'll just need a few modifications: the pony will need to be bright pink; he will need to be big enough to accommodate Mr. Teeny's hand tooled western saddle; devil horns instead of ears; and of course, glowing red eyes.

My little pony indeed.


August 3, 1926 -
If you study the masters – Picasso, Jack Benny, Fred Astaire – right up to the day they died, they were performing. If you are creative, you get busier as you get older.


Anthony Dominick Benedetto (85 this year), last of the great saloon singers was born on this date.







Tony Bennett just recorded The Lady Is A Tramp with Lady GaGa this past weekend. You can at least say she has taste.


August 3, 1929 -
Four famous vaudevillian performers made the transition to the new medium of 'talking pictures' with release, on this date, of the film The Cocoanuts, starring the Four Marx Brothers -- Chico, Groucho, Harpo and Zeppo.



Sound films were still so new that soundproofing was not installed, so the film had to be shot in the early hours of the morning to reduce outside traffic noise. During the day, the Marx Brothers worked on this movie. At night, they were starring in Animal Crackers on the stage.


August 3, 1941 -
Martha Kostyra, business magnate, television host, author, magazine publisher and ex-con was born on this date.



Remember folks, she can set a beautiful table and kill you with any number of plastic utensils.


August 3, 1963 -
Allan Sherman released Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah (A Letter from Camp), in the US on this date



The song won a 1964 Grammy Award for comedy.



And somehow in the same universe, The Beach Boys’ Surfer Girl was released on this date as well.


Today in History:
August 3, 1492 -
Christopher Columbus famously set out to cross the ocean blue in a fleet of three ships: the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula.



Aren't racist cartoons from the 60's fun.


August 3, 1943 -
Gen Patton slaps shell-shocked private Charles Kuhl, in the hospital accusing him of cowardice.



The incident nearly ended Patton's career; he was ordered by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to apologize for this and a second, similar episode. It seemed to help Francis Ford Coppola's career.


August 3, 1963 -
Almost a year after the world barely averted World War III during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Hotline between the Pentagon and the Kremlin goes live.



The system consists of two teletype machines, with a full-time communications link routed through London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Helsinki.


August 3, 1966 -
Comedian and social critic Lenny Bruce dies of a morphine overdose in his Hollywood Hills home, two years after his original obituary was published in The Realist.



At the time of his death, Bruce was being maliciously harassed by police and districts attorney in various states for his groundbreaking standup performances, causing great difficulty in finding venues at which to perform.


August 3, 1996 -
Sacrifices to the volcano gods do nothing to appease their wrath; the Macarena by Los Del Rio appears as #1 on the pop charts on this date.



The accompanying madness afflicts millions before one virgin was found and tossed into Mount Etna.



And so it goes.