Sunday, October 21, 2012

International Day of the Nachos

In 1943, Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya, the maître d' of the Victory Club in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, prepared the first plate of crunchy, spicy nachos for Texas women who were on a shopping trip.



To honor his ingenious creation, we celebration by eating his delicious gut busting cheesy dish on this date.


As you get older, the pickings get slimmer, but the people don't.



Carrie Fisher, actress and writer was born on this date. You can't say anything bad or funny about her that she hasn't already said better herself.


October 21, 1937 -
The great screwball comedy, The Awful Truth, starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, premiered on this date.



Much of the film was improvised by director Leo McCarey and the cast during filming each day.


October 21, 1942 -
The first of three movie musicals in which Judy Garland and Gene Kelly starred in, For Me and My Gal, premiered in New York City on this date.



This film was Gene Kelly's film debut. It is known that Judy Garland got him the job after seeing him in the Broadway musical Pal Joey.


October 21, 1954 -
The episode of Climax!, an anthology series - broadcast live, on this evening was the first time James Bond (Barry Nelson) appeared on-screen in Casino Royale, and more than half a century later Bond is still making movies.



Barry Nelson was the first actor, and only American, to play James Bond in an authorized production, although Richard Conte was the drawing model for the British paperback cover of Casino Royale 1955 reprint. Linda Christian played the first ever Bond Girl, Valerie Mathis (combining two book characters, Vesper Lynd and Rene Mathis). Peter Lorre played Le Chiffre, the first ever Bond villain in film.


October 21, 1957 -
The film Jailhouse Rock starring Elvis Presley opened in Memphis, Tennessee on this date.



Originally the choreographer, Alex Romero, created a dance for the song "Jailhouse Rock" that was in a style that was apropos for a more classically trained dancer than Elvis. When Mr. Romero realized that his plans for the number were never going to work, he asked Elvis how would he normally move to the song; thus, this is how Elvis became the uncredited choreographer for what could be considered his most famous dance number in all of his movies.


October 21, 1964 -
Possibly the most fully realized movie musical, My Fair Lady premiered at the Criterion Theater in New York, on this date.



Jack L. Warner originally didn't want Rex Harrison to reprise his stage role as Higgins for the film version, since he had seen Cleopatra and thought the actor looked too old to be believable as Audrey Hepburn's love interest. Peter O'Toole was considered for the role of Professor Higgins, but his salary demands were too high. Harrison responded in a letter to Warner that he had only looked old as Gaio Giulio Cesare because he had been playing an epileptic at the end of his life, and after sending some publicity photographs of himself - minus his toupee - he was eventually cast.



Today in History:
October 21, 1805 -
The Battle of Trafalgar was a historic sea battle fought on this date, between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy - the battle, it self, was the most decisive British victory of the Napoleonic Wars and was a pivotal naval battle of the 19th century.



Admiral Lord Nelson was mortally wounded during the battle, becoming and remaining Britain's greatest naval war hero.



Nelson's body was placed in cask of brandy, mixed with camphor and myrrh, and returned to England for a spectacular funeral. An enduring rumor has evolved that the sailors aboard ship kept taking a sip from Nelson's liquory tomb hence the phrase "Nelson's blood' came into use for rum.


October 21, 1837 -
It's another banner day for the relations between the United States and the Native American tribes. During the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), under a flag of truce during peace talks, U.S. troops under Gen. Thomas S. Jesup violated a truce and captured Indian Seminole Chief Osceola in Florida and sent him and several other leaders to prison, where the chief later died of malaria.


Osceola's capture by deceit caused a national uproar. General Jesup and the administration were condemned. Makes you proud to be an American.


October 21, 1869 -
The first shipment of fresh oysters came West overland from Baltimore via refrigerated train cars on this date.


Fresh cases of E-coli poisoning, Salmonella and Hepatitis A cases followed soon thereafter.


October 21, 1879 -
Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Alva Edison demonstrated the incandescent electric lamp on this date (or some other date, as previously mentioned.)



That invention was the fruit of study, hard work, and years of persistent experimentation, rendering it entirely inappropriate for discussion here.


More worthy of our attention is Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel Prize, born on this date in 1833.

Mr Nobel is interesting because his fortune was founded in large part on the commercial success of something he invented in 1866: dynamite.



Dynamite proved so lucrative for Mr Nobel that he was able to spend most of the rest of his life blowing things up in the interests of world peace. World peace was not achieved in his lifetime, however, so he endowed a foundation with millions of dollars to give prizes to the men and women of future generations who helped bring the world closer to peace by blowing things up.


October 21, 1973 -
John Paul Getty III's ear was cut off by his kidnappers and sent to a newspaper in Rome; It doesn't arrive until November 8.


So much for the Italians getting the trains to run on time.


October 21, 1992 -
A day after her Erotica album was released, Madonna's erotic-book "Sex" went on sale in the nation's bookstores on this date.



Shirley Booth, 94, Emmy, Oscar and Tony award winning actress accidentally flipped through the book and promptly dropped dead on this date as well.



And so it goes


there are 10 days until Halloween,
16 days until the General Election,
32 days until Thanksgiving,
64 days until Christmas
(and possibly 60 days until the end of time)
- so get cracking.

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