Now this is a story ...

Did you every wonder what the theme song of a popular sitcom would sound like if the lyrics were translated into every language in Google translate then back to English?



Well, wonder no more.


(Still getting settled into my new office, so it's an abbreviated posting today.)
Today in History:
It's a strange mix of birthday wishes today

January 17, 1706 -
Benjamin Franklin was born on this date.



The inventor of spectacles and the hundred dollar bill, Franklin was one of Washington’s first celebrated womanizers to avoid conviction. One day Franklin tied a key to the string of a kite that he then flew in a thunderstorm, thus discovering Electrolysis.



Franklin also invented the Post Office and can be credited with the creation of the first fully functioning disgruntled postal worker.


On January 17, 1806, President Thomas Jefferson's grandson James Madison Randolph became the first child to be born in the White House - his mother was Martha Randolph, one of President  Jefferson's two daughters, this was her 8th child.

Sadly, no official records have been kept on the more interesting statistics of children conceived in the White House.


Also born on January 17 was Al Capone, in 1899. Chronic self-esteem problems in his early adolescence resulted in his turning to a life of crime in Chicago (where crime had by now trickled down from elected officials to the lower classes).



Capone was such a successful gangster that eventually Robert DeNiro had to play him.



In the end, Capone was captured by Elliot Ness and his Untouchables, who got their name from the fact that their busy schedules prevented them from changing their underwear


January 17, 1860 O.S. - (which means Julian calendar. We celebrate his birthday on the 29th of January N.S. - which means Gregorian calendar. So it not really his birthday today but he's dead so I don't think he really cares.) -

Anton Chekhov was born in Taganrog, Russia.

Tragically, a bureaucratic snafu at the Kremlin resulted in Chekhov’s not being told he was one of the Great Russian Writers, so he practiced medicine well into middle life. By then, of course, he was almost good enough to quit practicing, but he’d also made a name for himself as a writer. As a doctor and writer of comedies, Chekhov originated the saying "laughter is the best medicine" (some of his tubercular patients disagreed, but they subsequently died, proving his point).



Chekhov’s greatest work is The Seagull, in which a young man kills a seagull, making his girlfriend cry and a lot of people with unpronounceable Russian names argue and wave pistols about.



Chekhov should not be confused with Chekhov, who was the security officer of the USS Enterprise,



and neither of them should be confused with Charo.


January 17, 1922 -
Why do people say "grow some balls"? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding.



Betty Marion White, one of the hardest working actress in Hollywood (has been working almost continuously since 1949) was born on this date


January 17, 1962 -
James Eugene Carrey, Canadian-American actor and rubber-faced comedian, was born on this date.



Now you figure out how all of those people are related


January 17, 1929 -
I yam what I yam

Popeye the Sailor Man, created by Elzie Crisler Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatre comic strip on this date.


January 17, 1961 -
In his farewell address on this date, President Eisenhower warned against the rise of "the military-industrial complex."



And yet on the same date, Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of Congo, was murdered after 67 days in office on this date. President Eisenhower allegedly approved the assassination of the prime minister by the CIA.


January 17, 1977 -
Let's do it



Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore was executed by a firing squad in Utah, ending a ten-year moratorium on Capital punishment in the United States.



And so it goes.