Do you know why the kidnappers let Junior go?

December 8, 1963 -
... Because they heard him humming in the trunk. - Don Rickles

Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped at Harrah's Lake Tahoe, Nevada. After Frank Sinatra paid the $240,000.00 random, Jr. was set free a few days later. It has always been speculated that Sinatra, Jr. cooperated with his abductors in their plot.



Frank Sr. was not happy. As punishment Frank Jr. was forced to become a fat, dumpy, bald headed guy who had to conduct the big band for Frank Sr. and all was well.


Today in History:
Henry Laurens, the Fifth President of the Continental Congress, became the first person to be formally cremated in the U.S. in 1792 on this date.

Things would have gone on in a more dignified manner if Mr Laurens was deceased at the time (just kidding - he was quite dead, especially after the cremation.)


December 8, 1793 -
Mme. du Barry, mistress of Louis XV, did not go quietly to that good death. On the way to the guillotine she continually collapsed in the tumbrel and cried "You are going to hurt me! Why?!" She became quite hysterical during her execution: "She screamed, she begged mercy of the horrible crowd that stood around the scaffold, she aroused them to such a point that the executioner grew anxious and hastened to complete his task."

Her last words to the executioner: "Encore un moment, monsieur le bourreau, un petit moment," (One moment more, executioner, one little moment) were her most famous.

How insensitive of her to be such a pain.


December 8, 1854 -
Pius IX promulgates the doctrine of Immaculate Conception - the Virgin Mary is free from original sin (and not the other thing some of you think.)

Later, she achieves permanent fame when despite of her marriage, she gets knocked up by God.


December 8, 1952 -
In some weird cosmic irony, the episode Lucy Is Enceinte first aired on CBS-TV ("enceinte" being French for "expecting" or "pregnant") on this date.



CBS would not allow I Love Lucy to use the word "pregnant", so "expecting" was used instead.


December 8, 1961 -
Conservative columnist Ann Coulter, was spawned on this day (Think the movie, Splice).



The L.A. Times has referred to her as the Miss Mullah of the Peroxide Right.


December 8, 1980 -
Beatle John Lennon shot by a lunatic, Mark David Chapman, outside Lennon's apartment in New York City mere hours after receiving the Beatle's autograph.



Chapman was carrying around his dog eared copy of, Catcher in the Rye.



For those of you who remember the book, I leave it to you to draw any conclusions.


December 8, 1982 -
Activist Norman D Mayer barricades himself inside the Washington Monument and threatens to blow it up unless all nuclear weapons are dismantled. He is shot by police after 10 hours.

That's what you get for sticking up the largest prick in DC.


There's a serious point I'd like to make

When 'reality stars' have oil enemas on TV then are filmed having an accidential leakage, on camera, they give up all rights to a private life. Every single second of their freakish life is open and fair game.

This is why the rest of the world hates us.


12 more shopping days until Hanukkah, 17 more shopping days until Christmas.



And so it goes