Hmmm, Donuts

June 7, 2013 -
Did you know that NYC will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of National Donut Day today? 

The holiday began as a fundraiser for the Salvation Army in 1938. It is celebrated annually on the first Friday of June, and honors all the female volunteers who served donuts to soldiers behind the front lines during World War I.



To celebrate Donut Day 2013, To celebrate, a few donut shops are offering a free donut deal. Celebrate at Krispy Kreme with a free donut of any variety, or at Dunkin' Donuts which is offering a free donut with the purchase of any beverage. And in Madison Square Park, Entenmann's will be handing out free Entenmann’s donuts and coffee, using the largest Entenmann's donut box ever.

Don't let Mayor Bloomberg know you're planning on celebrating.


It was a beautiful weekend back in 1786, it's nice to know that the first day ice cream was sold in the US, on this date.

The Smithsonian Museum purports to have an inappropriate woodcutting of a very young Jackie Mason making a rude hand gesture to either Martha Washington or Dolley Madison concerning the size of the scoop of ice cream he was served.


Jimmy Fallon and The Ragtime Gals transform another classic, I Wanna Sex Up by Color Me Badd, into barbershop quartet hormonies



Try to imagine this song on the Lawrence Welk show


Talk about cosmic convergence - it's Dean Martin's,



Tom Jones'



and Prince's birthday today.



Think of the number of children conceived listening to their music.


Today in History (it's not a rainbow and lollipop's day):
June 7, 1494 -
Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas (which divides the New World between the two countries. Hence, the Brazilians speak Portuguese rather than Spanish). In the volatile, war-torn world in which we live, many historical documents have become required reading. Not this one. You will never be standing at a cocktail party where someone says, "It's all because of that damn Treaty of Tordesillas."


   
           
No one will ever blame the failures of the Middle East Peace Process or the brinkmanship in south Asia on the harsh conditions of the Treaty of Tordesillas. You'll never see your favorite pundit toss off the "Treaty of Tordesillas" in an ironic and off-handed way. You won't hear Noam Chomsky cite it as a cause or effect of American imperialism. It will never attract the directorial eye of Michael Moore or Oliver Stone.

You already know more about that treaty than most people alive today. You may now forget it ever existed. It has no relevance to your life.


June 7, 1502 -
Ugo Buoncompagni was born on this date. He became Pope Gregory XIII in 1572 and remained the Pope until 1585. He is best known for reforming the Julian calendar, which is why it's now Gregorian instead of Julian.

Had he reformed the calendar before becoming Pope, it would be the Ugian Calendar. That would have been a calendar worth having.  (For some reason this thought has popped into my head - I think I've mentioned Pope Gregory XIII on these pages more than any human being.)


June 7, 1692 -
At 11:43am, a catastrophic earthquake strikes Port Royal, Jamaica, then known as "the richest and wickedest city in the world." Buildings are shaken apart and ships in harbor hurled onto busy streets.



In just three minutes, the temblor takes out 70% of the population, killing 1,600 and seriously injuring 3,000 others.


June 7, 1937 -
While filming Saratoga, Jean Harlow was hospitalized with uremic poisoning and kidney failure, a result of the scarlet fever she had suffered during childhood.



In the days before dialysis and kidney transplants, nothing could be done and Harlow died on this date. She was 26. (Most of you probably have not idea who the hell Jean Harlow was?)


June 7, 1954 -
Despondent over court-ordered estrogen treatments to cure his homosexuality, Alan Turing commits suicide by consuming an apple laced with cyanide. (His inspiration - Snow White, his favorite movie.)



Turing is considered the founder of modern computing, a pioneer in the field of Artificial Intelligence, and a crucial member of the team that cracked Germany's Enigma cipher in World War II.



So, apparently an apple a day does keep the doctor away - permanently.


June 7, 1965 -
I'm a born and bred New Yorker. I belong here. Everytime I leave it's like losing a leg.



The anything but dumb blonde, Judy Holliday (born Judith Tuvim, who reportedly had an IQ of over 170) died from the breast cancer that had plagued her for over five years, on this date. She was 43.


June 7, 1967 -
Dorothy Rothschild Parker, writer, poet, critic and screen writer, outlived many of her drinking buddies from the Algonquin Round Table, died of a heart attack at the age of 73 on this date.



Her 'troubles' did not end with her death as her executrix, Lillian Hellman, bitterly but unsuccessfully contested the final bequest of her estate to the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. foundation and her ashes remained unclaimed in various places, including her attorney Paul O'Dwyer's filing cabinet, for approximately 17 years.



June 7, 1982 -
In an effort to defray its $500,000 annual upkeep costs, Priscilla Presley opens Graceland to the public only five years after Elvis died in an upstairs bathroom. The bathroom is kept off-limits to tourists.



Think of how much they could take in at the gate if you could sit on the King's final throne?



And so it goes.