Monday, December 12, 2011

I'm wiped out

A birthday party, a sleep over and decorating for the holidays (I can't cram this much stuff in a weekend anymore.) While I'm applying a cold compress, why not watch We're No Angels -



It actually has a Christmas theme.


December 12, 1915 -
It's Francis Albert Sinatra's birthday.



I had dinner this past weekend and was once again asked (threatened by a large group of business men from Philadelphia of Italian ancestry) not to bring up his mafia connections, so today we will not be resorting to that cheap gimmick to slander the Chairman of the Board, greatest singer of the 20th century.


December 12, 1972 -
Irwin Allen's ocean disaster movie, The Poseidon Adventure, premiered in NYC on this date.



Filming was delayed twice because of the cost, and finally began only when Irwin Allen and outside backers matched the investment of Twentieth Century Fox. Reportedly, Allen found those backers by walking across the street from the Fox lot to a country club, where he found some friends playing cards. During the card game, they agreed to back the film. Because the studio never spent any of the backer's money, the backers made a profit from the success of the film without actually spending a dime.


Today in History:
December 12, 1531-
It's the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, an indigenous peasant, had visions of the Virgin Mary. Legend held that the Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego outside Mexico City and left an imprint on his cactus-fiber poncho. The poncho became an icon for the Virgin of Guadalupe.

So now you know.


December 12, 1917
With a rent payment of $90 borrowed from a friend, Father Edward Flanagan founds Boys Town outside Omaha, NE in an old Victorian mansion on this date.



Flanagan's archbishop allowed Flanagan to focus on the boy's home and assigned nuns to help him.


December 12, 1937 -
Japanese aircraft shell and sink US gunboat Panay on the Yangtze River in China. Japan apologized, disciplining those involved and paying $2.2M reparations.



You think we might have seen something coming up.


December 12, 1968 -
The only thing I regret about my past is the length of it. If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner.



After a long and well enjoyed life, Tallulah Bankhead died in St. Luke's Hospital in New York City of double pneumonia, complicated by emphysema and malnutrition, on this date.

Her last coherent words reportedly were "Codeine... bourbon."


December 12, 1980 -
Whip It earns Devo a gold record on this date. It is the first distinction of its kind for any song about masturbation.



You must whip it.


8 more shopping days until Hanukkah, 13 more shopping days until Christmas.



And so it goes.

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