Turn your wounds into wisdom.

January 29, 1954 -
Orpah Gail Winfrey, the most influential (and one of the wealthiest) woman in the world, is another year older.



You don't need to get her anything, Oprah got her birthday wish -  a two term President.


January 29, 1959 -
With a budget that exceeded $6 million, Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty premiered in Los Angeles on this date.



Famed Warner Bros. animation director Chuck Jones worked on the film briefly when Termite Terrace closed temporarily during the late 1950s. He found the atmosphere at Walt Disney Productions oppressive because everything anyone did there had to be approved by Walt Disney before, during, and after the process of production. He was more than happy when Warner's animation department reopened, where he stayed until it closed again in 1964.


January 29, 1964 -
Introducing us to saving our precious bodily fluids and the rule about no fighting in the War room, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was released in the United States, on this date.



Peter Sellers was also cast as Maj. T.J. "King" Kong, but he had trouble developing a Texas accent. When Sellers broke his ankle, Stanley Kubrick decided to cast another actor who naturally fit the role. John Wayne never responded. Bonanza star Dan Blocker, declined the role because of the script's progressive political content. Kubrick cast Slim Pickens because of his work on One-Eyed Jacks. Kubrick told Pickens to play it straight.


Today in History
January 29 1595 -
... O! she doth teach the torches to burn bright
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear....











William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet is probably first performed on this date (unless it wasn't).

I don't know, I wasn't there, were you?


It's Thomas Paine's birthday today. He was born in 1737.



You could commemorate the occasion by reading (or rereading) Common Sense. You could also commemorate the occasion by piercing an eyebrow or waxing your car or bleaching someone's anal area.

I don't care, it was just a suggestion.


January 29, 1979 -
Brenda Spencer fired repeatedly at the school across from her residence in San Diego, killing 2 and wounding 8 children, using the rifle her father had given her as a gift.



I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day. -- The reason she gave inspired the Boomtown Rats song.



Remember: guns don't kill people, it's the damn gifts our father's give us.



And so it goes.