2014 can't come soon enough

12 years ago today, the US entered Afghanistan, hunting for the terrorist that brought down the World Trade Center Towers. For some reason, we're still there - making this the longest US military engagement.

Last week, the 2280th US soldier died; there have been 3383 coalition deaths.  Please take a moment out of your day today to consider the sacrifices, warranted or not, that the men and woman of the US military (and their families) have made.


October 7, 1952 -It's Vladimir Putin's 61th birthday.

Somebody please check what the Nobel committee is smoking; Putin has been nominated for the Peace prize this year.


October 7, 1950 -
Drink Friz! 6 Delicious Flavours.



The character of Granny appeared for the first time in a Looney Tunes Cartoon when Canary Row premiered on this date.


October 7, 1960 -
Kirk Douglas in his magnificent leather thong, starred in Spartacus, which premiered in the US on this date.



Stanley Kubrick was brought in as director after Kirk Douglas had a major falling out with the original director, Anthony Mann. According to Peter Ustinov, the salt mines sequence was the only footage shot by Mann.


October 7, 1960 -
Route 66 premiered on this date.



Although the series was called Route 66 many of the episodes were set in areas in the United States which Route 66 did not travel through. For example, Route 66 begins in Chicago and ends in L.A., but two episodes were shot in New England, one in Maine and one in Vermont.


October 7, 1972 -
William Friedkin's taut policier, The French Connection, opened in NYC on this date.



Roy Scheider and Gene Hackman patrolled with Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso for a month to get the feel of the characters. Hackman became disgusted at the sights he saw during this patrol. In one incident he had to help restrain a suspect in the squad car and later worried that he would be sued for impersonating a policeman.


Today in History:
October 7, 1849 -
On this date, Edgar Allen Poe was found in a delirious state (Maryland) outside a Baltimore voting place (saloon).



Mr. Poe was often found delirious, especially outside voting places,



but this time his delirium was serious and he died.


October 7, 1952 -
A little TV show called American Bandstand premiered on this date, 61 years ago.



It premiered locally as a live show, Bandstand, on Philadelphia television station WFIL-TV (Channel 6, now WPVI-TV) on this date in Studio 'B', which was located in their just-completed addition to the original 1947 building (4548 Market Street) and was hosted by Bob Horn, with Lee Stewart as co-host. Dick Clark did not become associated with the show until 1956.


October 7, 1955 -
It was on this day in San Francisco at the Six Gallery, the poet Allen Ginsberg read his poem Howl for the first time.



The poem begins, "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness." His friend Jack Kerouac sat on the edge of the stage and when Ginsberg was done, the audience exploded in applause.



When Lawrence Ferlinghetti published the poem Howl out of his City Lights bookstore in San Francisco, he was arrested and tried for obscenity, but he was found not guilty.


October 7, 1964 -
Walter W. Jenkins, chief White House aide and longtime friend of President Lyndon B. Johnson, was arrested for disorderly conduct two blocks from the White House on this date. Jenkins was discovered in a YMCA pay toilet with another man.

Ultimately, Jenkins is forced to resign, so as not to jeopardize Johnson's re-election campaign. Jenkins stated that during his arrest, his mind had been "befuddled by fatigue, alcohol, physical illness, and lack of food."

Yeah, that's it, befuddled by fatigue... yeah, that and a wide stance will get you in trouble in a men's public restroom all the time.



And so it goes