Tuesday, June 25, 2013

They're Back

On July 15th, Twinkies, CupCakes, Ding Dongs, Donettes and other classic treats are making a comeback.


You may pace yourself with your remaining stash.


According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (remember, they have no affiliation to organized crime,) Americans will eat 7 billion hot dogs over the summer.



That's a lot of lips and thighs (and other unmentionable ground animal parts.)


Michael Jackson has been singing with the castrati in Heaven for four years. Death hasn't put a crimp in his record sales.  (Farrah Fawcett also died four years ago today.  I don't believe she's singing with any castrati.)



There is no connection between these two events but it's the birthday of George Michael:



I wonder how he will celebrate his 50th birthday? (whatever he's up to, it's definitively not singing with castrati.)


Happy LEON day. LEON is NOEL spelled backwards. It is now six months until Christmas.



Kids, you can take a quick check of the whole naughty/ nice thing and see how you are doing.


June 25, 1938 -
Another in the series of 'books come alive', Have You Got Any Castles? was released on this date.



The globe on the cover of Pearl Buck's book "The Good Earth" requests blessings for people in his family, including "Papa Leon and Uncle Ray." This is in reference to Leon Schlesinger, who was the executive producer of the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons up until 1944, and Raymond Katz, Schlesinger's brother-in-law, who also worked in the cartoon studio.


June 25, 1963 -
One of Federico Fellini's greatest films, Otto e mezzo, (8 ½), opened in the US, on this date.



Federico Fellini was well-known for working without a stable, finished screenplay. At one point during pre-production, he had completely forgot what his next work would have been about, his original idea had completely gone. While he was set to communicate to the movie producer Angelo Rizzoli his intention of abandoning the project, Fellini was invited to the birthday party of a head camera-operator of Cinecittà. All of a sudden, during the celebration, he got a new idea: his film would have told about a film-director who was going to direct a film, but he forgot what it was about.


June 25, 1982 -
The greatest dystopian Sci- Fi film (at this point), Blade Runner, opened on this date.



The ending title sequence in the theatrical cut of the film contains unused footage from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. These were extra shots of the main title sequence, although none of the shots contain the road that was seen in The Shining.


June 25, 1993 -
Possibly the greatest Meg Ryan 'chick flick' (which may seem redundant to some,) Sleepless in Seattle, premiered on this date.




A pre-Seinfeld reference to the real-life "Soup Nazi": A male journalist is speaking as Meg Ryan enters an office at her newspaper, saying, "...he's the meanest guy in the world, but he makes the best soup you've ever eaten."


Today in History:
June 25, 841 -
Charles the Bald and Louis the German defeated Lothar at Fontenay on this date.

I kid you not, Charles the Fat and Louis the Younger (Louis' sons) were too young (although Louis the Younger was older than Charles the Fat) to join in the fracas.And you thought mafioso capo names were funny.


June 25, 1876 -
This is a little cautionary tale about pissing off the wrong people.

During the Battle of Little Big Horn, General George Armstrong Custer witnesses a large group of Indians fleeing their village, and decides to press his advantage. The cavalry officer shouts, "We've caught them napping, boys!" Then he splits his force of 210 men into three groups, in order to slaughter as many of the retreating noncombatants as possible. Which is right about the time Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse sweep in and kill the white men. Two days later, Custer's body is found amidst a cluster of 42 other corpses, the general entirely naked except for one boot, one sock, and an arrow stuck in his penis.



This is the native way a sending a very serious message.


June 25, 1903 -
Eric Arthur Blair was born on this day in eastern India, the son of a British colonial civil servant. He burned to be a writer but had no success get people to look at his work, so he was forced him into a series of menial jobs.



Finally he became a Famous Author and even a Great Writer, but by then he was dead, whatever his name was.


June 25, 1910 -
The Mann Act, sometimes known as the White Slave Traffic Act of 1910, makes it a federal crime to convey or assist in transporting women across state lines for prostitution, debauchery, or "any other immoral purpose." Men convicted of this heinous (if vague) statute face up to five years and a $5,000 fine for each count. Penalties are doubled if the female is underage, but men and boys are apparently not covered. This is, by far, the biggest party pooper in legislative history.



Unless you're into guys.


June 25, 1967 -
The first live, international, satellite television production, Our World, was broadcast on this date. Among the featured performers were opera singer Maria Callas, artist Pablo Picasso and a small English skiffle group called The Beatles.



When the The Beatles' appearance on the program was announced, John Lennon wrote the song especially for the occasion. He was told by the BBC: it had to be simple so that viewers would tune in.

I guess he was right.


There are 183 days until Christmas.



And so it goes.

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