Baby, it's cold outside

The cold weather in the Northeast will be sticking around until at least Saturday but this should make you feel a little better about it -



It hasn't snowed heavily (yet!)


January 24, 1927 -
Alfred Hitchcock, former titles writer for silent movies, releases his first film, The Pleasure Garden, in England.



Although shot in 1925, and shown to the British press in March 1926, the film wasn't actually released in the UK until after The Lodger was a massive hit in 1927.


January 24, 1940 -
John Ford's film version of John Steinbeck's novel, The Grapes of Wrath, starring Henry Fonda, premiered in New York City on this date.



Prior to filming, producer Darryl F. Zanuck sent undercover investigators out to the migrant camps to see if John Steinbeck had been exaggerating about the squalor and unfair treatment meted out there. He was horrified to discover that, if anything, Steinbeck had actually downplayed what went on in the camps.


January 24, 1947 -
... The trail is long and the river is wide and my ride's here.



Warren William Zevon, singer-songwriter and musician, was born on this date.

Remember kids - keep enjoying every sandwich.


January 24, 1949 -
...Because I'm a dancer!



John Belushi, actor and comedian, was born on this date.


Today in History:
January 24, 41 -
Roman emperor and crackpot Caligula is assassinated by his bodyguards. His last words apparently were, "I am still alive! Strike again."



Yeah, yeah, I know you know that the Roman Emperor Caligula made his horse a senator and a god, married his sister, slept with the horse, slept with the potted plants ...



I guess this guy got more unnatural things done in a day then most of us do in a lifetime.


January 24, 1848 -
James W. Marshall found gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento, starting the California gold rush on this date.



According to the Gold Institute less than 2 million ounce's of gold were mined during the height of the California Gold Rush in 1849.


January 24, 1908 -
The first Boy Scout troop is organized in England on this date, by its founder, Robert Baden-Powell, a man who enjoyed seeing and photographing naked boys swimming just a little too much.

It is odd that such a homophobic organization would be founded by a repressed homosexual.


January 24, 1925 -
A motion picture of a solar eclipse was recorded by the United States Navy from the dirigible USS Los Angeles, about nineteen miles east of Montauk Point, Long Island, New York on this date.



It is the first time a dirigible has been used for astronomical observations in the U.S.


January 24, 1978 -
The nuclear-powered Soviet Cosmos 954 satellite plunges through Earth's atmosphere and disintegrates, scattering radioactive debris over parts of Canada's Northwest Territories. Much of the satellite lands in the Great Slave Lake; only about 1% of the radioactive material was recovered.

Hey, I hope we all enjoyed that smoked salmon from Canada in the late 70's.


January 24, 1986 -
Note to Tom Cruise - nothing to read here, move on.



Crackpot and founder of the fraudulent Scientology movement, L. Ron Hubbard died on this date (laughing his ass off about the crap he made up.) His bad science fiction writing has grown alarmingly prolific in the years since his death.


And so it goes.

Before you go - here's the next installment of Comedians Walking & Getting Mani-Pedis: