What freakin' drug are you on?

Newt Gingrich thinks riding the subway is for the elite.

Yes, the homeles man sitting in my car with his pants around his ankles, picking only the choicest crabs from his crotch to munch upon was on his way to confer with Mayor Bloomberg.


To start the day in a better vein, the wonderful Japanese Ukulele group U900 has a new album out - Ukulele Michael -



How can your day not be great after that?


On February 4, 2008, at 00:00 GMT, NASA transmitted the Beatles song Across The Universe in the direction of the star Polaris, 431 light years from Earth. The transmission was made using a 70m antenna in the DSN's Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex, located outside of Madrid, Spain. It was done with an "X band" transmitter, radiating into the antenna at 18 kW.



What the hell will we do if they are all Stones fans?


February 4, 1918 -
Ida Lupino, actress, director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers was born on this date.





Nobody messes with Ida Lupino (actual the phase I always heard was 'nobody fucks with Ida Lupino', which, if you think of it, suits her so much better.)


February 4, 1948 -
Vincent Furnier (Alice Cooper), rocker and avid golfer, was born on this date.





Yes, we're all not worthy.


February 4, 1977 -
Fleetwood Mac's Rumours was released on this date.



The album shot to the top of Billboard's chart staying there for 31 weeks. More than 17 million copies have been sold in the U.S. This was another album my sister and I wore the needle on the record player out on.

What a happy little album


Today in History:
February 4, 1861 -
Do you think Hallmark has a card commemorating this event?

State delegates meet in Montgomery, Ala., to form a Confederate government on this date.

They elected Jefferson Davis as president of Confederacy.


February 4, 1889 -
Harry Longabaugh was released from Sundance Prison in Wyoming, thereby acquiring the famous nickname, The Sundance Kid on this date.



Kids, this was the film Brokeback Mountain during the 60's


February 4, 1902 -
Isolationist, racist, neo-nazi and early environmentalist Charles Lindbergh, first man to fly solo across the Atlantic, was born on this date.



Kind of complicated guy, don't you think.


February 4, 1912 -
Franz Reichelt (alias the flying tailor) designed an overcoat to fly or float its wearer gently to the ground like the modern parachute. To demonstrate his invention he made a jump of 60 meters from the first deck of the Eiffel Tower, at that time the tallest man-made structure in the world.



The parachute failed and Reichelt fell to his death.



The jump was recorded by the cameras of the gathered press. Winner of the 1912 Darwin Award.


February 4, 1913 -
Rosa Lee Parks, civil rights activist whose refusal to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Alabama started the Civil Rights Movement, was born on this date.




February 4, 1974 -

Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst, 19 years old, was kidnapped in Berkeley, California, by the Symbionese Liberation Army on this date.




February 4, 1983 -
Karen Carpenter dies of anorexia nervosa on this date. She frequently took laxatives and induced vomiting to prevent weight gain.



At the time of her death she was pencil thin. Lead graphite thin.


February 4, 1987 -
Pianist/jewelry wearer Wladziu Valentino Liberace died in Palm Springs, California due to complications from AIDS.



Nobody ever suspected the man was gay.


February 4, 1999 -
In NYC plainclothes police officers fired 41 shots at Amadou Diallo, a Bronx street peddler and immigrant from Guinea, who was unarmed in front of his Bronx home. Police were searching for a rapist and Daillo was killed with 19 gunshot wounds.



Officers Kenneth Boss, Sean Carroll, Edward McMellon and Richard Murphy were later indicted (but ultimately cleared) for 2nd degree murder.


February 4, 1998 -
Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates was assaulted with a direct hit by a fluffy cream pie during a three-pronged attack in Brussels. He was in Belgium attending meetings with industry and government leaders.



Rumor is that the attack was engineered by Noel Godin, infamous for his other pie throwings at government officials.



And so it goes.