We're Homeward Bound

The lights are back on in the hovel we call a home and we're all very thankful.


But even my kids know that we're lucky; other people won't be able to turn on the lights anytime soon,



If you can, please visit Redcross.org and make any donation that you can.


It's National Housewife Day.



Hey, why not donate some time this weekend, if you can, and help some family clean up their home after Sandy.


It's also National Sandwich Day - observed on the birthday of John Montague, Fourth Earl of Sandwich, creator of the sandwich.



To celebrate, begin gambling heavily, don't get up from the table for several hours and call for your manservant to bring you a slab of beef and two pieces of bread (and a piss pot).


Gojira premiered in Japan on this date in 1954.



In our house, this is reason enough to break out the hats and hooters. (Well, maybe the celebrations will be a little more muted this year.)


November 3, 1955 -
Another highlight from the end of the Golden Age of Hollywood Musicals, Guys and Dolls, premiered in NYC on this date.



Marlon Brando had been cast in the role of Sky Masterson, a role coveted by Frank Sinatra, while Sinatra was relegated to the supporting role of Nathan Detroit. Relations between the two actors were strained during production. Many years later, Brando said of Sinatra, "Frank's the kind of guy who, when he gets to Heaven, is going to give God a hard time for making him bald."


November 3, 1971 -
Clint Eastwood's directorial debut, Play Misty For Me premiered in NYC on this date.



When Clint Eastwood told Universal executive Lew Wasserman that he wanted to direct the film, Wasserman agreed, on the condition that Eastwood waive his usual acting fee, which he did.


Today in History:
November 3, 1956 -
It looks like we're not in Kansas anymore.



The Wizard of Oz was first televised (CBS-TV) on this date. Since most TV's at the time are black and white the technicolor part of the film is lost on the audience.



You don't really need to listen to Pink Floyd and take a massive amount of drugs to realize how truly weird this movie really is.


November 3, 1957 -
Laika the dog becomes the first living creature in space. She asphyxiated when oxygen in the Soviet Sputnik 2 ran out. However, some western researchers speculate that Laika roasted when the satellite's heat shields were detached.



I wonder if the Explorer's club served Hot Dogs in her honor that year.


November 3, 1978 -
Diff'rent Strokes premiered on NBC on this date.



The cast's child actors have gone on to bigger and better things: Todd Bridges (arrests: drug possession, 1983; attempted murder, 1989; knife stabbing in self defense, no arrest, 1993; assault with a deadly weapon, 1997); Dana Plato (armed robbery, 1992, then a porno centerfold; dead of a drug overdose in 1999); Gary Coleman (a short, pudgy gun nut who plays Nintendo games; 2003 gubernatorial candidate; died in 2010 after an accidental fall in his home).



And so it goes.


Daylight saving time finally ends on Sunday at 2 a.m. -- remember to set your clocks (and every thing else) back one hour when you go to bed Saturday night. Also they're not running the marathon tomorrow - stay in bed the extra hour.


Also here's proof once again Jimmy Fallon is the luckiest man on TV



Not everyone gets to sit around their office and jam with The Roots and Christina Aguilera, then later on that day, sing on TV with Bruce and Steven Tyler as your back-up singers and Billy Joel as your keyboard player.