Ah, sweet memories of youth

For those of you, Paschally inclined - Happy Palm Sunday

Please refrain from hitting your siblings with the palm fronds. Or your mother might say to you, and I quote, "I swear to God if you kids don't cut that shit out, I will beat your asses all the way home with those palms, in front of all your friends. I don't care how embarrassed you are."


Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis. - Jack Handy

Today is World Tuberculosis Day, commemorates the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the cause of tuberculosis, the TB bacillus

(also it is supposed to remind people that tuberculosis still remains an epidemic in much of the world.)


It's also National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day - a day to enjoy this tasty combination of chocolate and fruit. Chocolate lovers who like raisins, find the combination simply irresistible. Kids find them irresistible, too.



Just make sure nobody owns a rabbit (or a guinnea pig, believe me, we know from personal experience) at the home where you are enjoying those Raisinets (TM).


March 24, 1939 -
... They say it is the cry of the Hound of the Baskervilles ...

Twentieth Century Fox's released on this date,  the first of fourteen films based on Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles.



This was starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson. While not entirely passive, Watson's original role was mostly as an observer of Holmes and the chronicler of his cases. With this film a new tradition began where Watson enjoyed equal billing with Holmes. In Nigel Bruce's hands the character became a comedic foil and a bit of a bumbler. Later interpretations would vary, but the character remained greater than literature's original enigma.

Oh Watson, the needle


March 24, 1951 -
Scent-Imental Romeo, another funny Looney Tunes short starring Pepé Le Pew, is released on this date.



This is the only Golden Age Pepe Le Pew cartoon in which Pepe does not continue chasing the cat (nor catches her) in the end.


Today in History:
March 24, 1401 -
Tamerlane conquered Damascus on this date. Tamerlane (Timur the Lane) was a descendant of Ghenghis Khan, and one of the greatest Tater leaders ever, expanding the Mongol empire from the Pacific to the Meditterranean.

Tamerlane is best remembered for having built pyramids out of human skulls, owing to a faulty understanding of architecture which no one ever had the courage to correct.  Feel free to bring this up at the next cocktail party you attend.


March 24, 1603 -
Tudor Queen Elizabeth I, the "Virgin Queen," died on this date. She had reigned from 1558-1603 and claimed never to have had a date.



Scottish King James VI, son of Mary, became King James I of England in the union of the crowns.


March 24, 1874 -
Harry Houdini, Erik Weisz (Ehrich Weiss) magician, escape artist, performed his first trick when he escaped from his mother's womb in Budapest on this date.



He is still working on perfecting his final trick of coming back from the dead.


March 24, 1895 -
Arthur Murray, American dancer who founded dance schools, was born on this date.



He proved to millions of Americans that they have no innate sense of rhythm.


March 24, 1944 -
76 Allied officers escaped Stalag Luft 3 on this date. In 1949 Paul Brickall wrote The Great Escape. The story of Jackson Barrett Mahon, an American fighter pilot, and the Allied POW escape from Stalag Luft III in Germany during WW II.



The 1963 film The Great Escape starred Steve McQueen, directed by John Sturges, was based on the true story.


March 24, 1975 -
Alex Mitchell, a 50-year-old bricklayer from King's Lynn, England, died laughing while watching an episode of The Goodies, featuring a Scotsman in a kilt battling a vicious black pudding with his bagpipes on this date.



After 25 minutes of continuous laughter Mitchell finally slumped on the sofa and expired from heart failure. His widow later sent the Goodies a letter thanking them for making Mitchell's final moments so pleasant. And the address where they can send her check.


March 24, 1989 -
Cold Fusion is announced on this date. To celebrate this amazing advancement in energy, Captain Joseph Hazelwood downs, in rapid succession, five double vodka on the rocks and piloted the Exxon tanker Valdez.



He ran the Valdez into a well-charted reef at Prince William sound, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil. An estimated 250,000 seabirds were killed.

Oops



And so it goes