It's coming

William Shatner next album, Ponder the Mystery will be release October 8, 2013

Quite possibly the most creative thing I have ever done. – William Shatner.  Reason enough to live.


August 30, 1959 -
Bobby Darin's jazzy interpretation of Mack The Knife began its 26-week stay on the pop-singles charts.



Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht wrote this song in 1928 for the German play The Threepenny Opera. "Mack" is Macheath, the title character, portrayed as a criminal. The light melody can make this feel like an upbeat song, but it contrasts sharply with the lyrics, which are about a murderer.


August 30, 1967 -
John Boorman's crime drama thriller, Point Blank, premiered on this date.




During a rehearsal taking place in the home of Lee Marvin, he hit John Vernon so hard that it made Vernon cry.


August 30, 1968 -
Apple Records released its first single, Hey Jude by The Beatles on this date.



This song hit #1 in at least 12 countries and by the end of 1968 had sold more than 5 million copies. It eventually sold over 10 million copies in the United States, becoming the fourth-biggest selling Beatles single there. Factoring in the price of records in 1968 vs. 1964, when the top-seller "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was released, "Hey Jude" might be the biggest earner.


Today in History:
I decided to make an executive decision and stop reporting on the second time in 30 BC, that Egypt's Queen Cleopatra VI clutched a snake to her breast and died.



Folks, as I mentioned in the past, the Romans, excellent at empire building and aqueduct making (except for the whole lining the aqueduct with lead), not so great at accurate note taking.


August 30, 1780 -
General "Eggs" Benedict Arnold secretly promised to surrender the West Point fort to the British army during the American Revolution. The measure of Arnold's treachery was made worse by the fact that he was considered by many to be the best general and most accomplished leader in the Continental Army.



In fact, without Arnold's earlier contributions to the American cause, the American Revolution might well have been lost; notwithstanding, his name, like those of several other prominent traitors throughout history, has become a byword for treason and a brunch staple.


August 30, 1859 -
At the University of Göttingen, PhD candidate Albert Niemann isolates the alkaloid C17H21NO4 from leaves of the plant Erythroxylum coca.

Niemann names his white, powdery discovery cocaine and observes firsthand its peculiarly strong anesthetic effect: "it benumbs the nerves of the tongue, depriving it of feeling and taste."



Oh, that's what cocaine does. Now I know.


August 30, 1918 -
Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin should have been having a great day on this date. Six weeks earlier, Lenin had the previous tenant of Kremlin, Tsar Nicholas II, permanently taken off the lease. After speaking at a factory in Moscow, Lenin was shot twice by Fanya Kaplan, a member of the Social Revolutionary party. Lenin narrowly survived an assassination attempt, but was severely wounded.



As Lenin was a 'godless' communist, he did not turn the other cheek. The assassination attempt set off a wave of reprisals by the Bolsheviks against the Social Revolutionaries and other political opponents. Thousands were executed as Russia fell deeper into civil war.


August 30, 1930 -
Warren Edward Buffett often called the "Sage of Omaha", "Oracle of Omaha", or "Omaha Steak", American investor, businessperson and philanthropist is born on this date. Buffett has amassed an enormous fortune from astute investments managed through the holding company Berkshire Hathaway, of which he is the largest shareholder and CEO.



With an estimated current net worth of around $53.5 billion, he was ranked by Forbes as the fourth-richest person in the world as of March 2013, falling behind behind Spanish businessman Amancio Ortega, (owner of the Zara clothing chain.)

I, on the other hand, did not make a blip on the list.


August 30, 1967 -
Thurgood Marshall, the lawyer who was best known for arguing the Brown v. Board of Education case before the Supreme Court, became the first black US Supreme Court Justice. 



The US Senate voted 69 to 11 to appoint Marshall. He served on the Court from 1967 to 1991.


August 30, 1993 -
The Late Show with David Letterman premiered on this date, on CBS-TV.



Bill Murray was his first guest and Billy Joel was the first musical guest.



And so it goes.