Today is America Recycles Day

We should all celebrate today

by celebrating National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day Today.


November 15, 1935 -
"... I am sure the familiar strains of Verdi's music will come back to you tonight, and Mrs. Claypool's cheques will probably come back to her in the morning. "

The Marx Brother's first film made without Zeppo, A Night at the Opera, premiered on this date.



In exasperation after several attempts to have Groucho Marx read one of his lines in the manner director Sam Wood had requested, Wood exclaimed, "I guess you just can't make an actor out of clay." Groucho Marx instantly responded, "Nor a director out of Wood."


November 15, 1940 -
The film that introduced Abbott and Costello to movie audiences, One Night in the Tropics, opened on this date.



The team had minor roles in the film but steal the picture with five classic routines, including an abbreviated version of Who's On First?.


November 15, 1945 -
The beautifully lyrical, Les Enfants du Paradis, opened in the US on this date.



This involved building the largest studio set in the then history of French cinema - the quarter mile of street frontage, reproduced in scrupulous detail, representing the Boulevard du Crime, the theater district of Paris in the 1830s and 40s. This would have been a daunting prospect at the best of times but in Vichy France, when all artisans, transport, materials, costumes and film stock were all in short supply - that this film was made during the height of WWII in Paris is amazing.


Today in History:
November 15, 1539 -
The Bishop of Glastonbury,Richard Whiting, was hung, drawn and quartered on Glastonbury Tor after being convicted of treason (on a trumped up charge) of remaining loyal to Rome on this date.

The Abbot's head was stuck on a spike above his abbey gateway for all to see, and his quarters, boiled in pitch, were displayed at neighboring monasteries.

Here's a fact to impress your friends with:
One interpretation of the children's nursery rhyme Little Jack Horner relates it to Jack Horner, steward to the Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Richard Whiting. Supposedly, the abbot sent Horner to London to present a pie to Henry VIII with the deeds to 12 manors inside. During the journey, Horner opened the pie and took the deed to Mells (it being the real 'plum' of the twelve manors), which was indeed acquired by the family at that time, although they claim that it was purchased legitimately.


November 15, 1660 -
Asser Levy (one of the first Jewish citizens to come to New Amsterdam) is the first kosher butcher licensed in NYC (New Amsterdam).

Later that day, a Mrs. Yetta Abromowicz is the first customer to ask how fresh the chicken was.


Today in 1864 -
Union General William T. Sherman begins his March to the Sea and burns Atlanta.



Meanwhile in another part of Atlanta, Rhett rescues Scarlett, Melanie and her brand new baby from Aunt Pittypat's Peachtree Street home before the conflagration begins.



Rhett declares his love for Scarlett but she rebuffs him.



But that's a another story.


November 15, 1887 -

American artist Georgia O'Keeffe was born on this date. Ms. O'Keeffe is best known for her colorful paintings of desert flowers -



that don't look like vaginas.


November 15, 1939 -
Perhaps because it was the depth of the Great Depression, the perversion of Washington DC, knew no bounds -

President Roosevelt, slowly but deliberately rose from his wheelchair and laid the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., in front a group of horrified dignitaries, on this date


November 15, 1940 -
NY Midtown tunnel linking Manhattan and Queens opens to traffic on this date.

Some of those first drivers have just made it out to Montauk.


November 15, 1956 -
Elvis Presley's first movie, Love Me Tender, premiered at New York's Paramount Theater on this date.



Given this was the King's first feature, this is the only film in which he didn't get top billing. He was billed third, after Richard Egan and Debra Paget.


November 15, 1959 -
In Holcomb, Kansas, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith brutually killed four members of the Herbert Clutter Family on this date.



This crime was memorably recounted by Truman Capote in his famous non-fiction story, In Cold Blood..


39 more shopping days until Christmas, 34 more shopping days until Hanukkah. (Black Friday is just 10 days away.)



And so it goes