It's World Egg Day -

Yes, let's all celebrate the incredible edible egg



I'm not clear on what the current thinking is on eggs - are eggs good for you or bad? I am willing to speak to the Egg Board about any spokesperson's position available.



And continuing our celebrations of all things cephalopods – today is Myths and Legends Day, saluting all the fantastical cephalopods of movies, literature and legend.


October 11, 1944 -
The murder-romantic classic, Laura, starring Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb and Vincent Price, premiered in NYC on this date.



The character of Waldo Lydecker appears to be based on the columnist, broadcaster, and "New Yorker" theater critic Alexander Woollcott, a famous wit who, like Waldo, was fascinated by murder. Woollcott always dined at the Algonquin Hotel, where Laura first approaches Waldo.


October 11, 1958 -
Spencer Tracy was virtually the whole movie in The Old Man and the Sea, which opened in U.S. theaters on this date.



In 1952, Humphrey Bogart attempted to purchase the film rights to Ernest Hemingway's novel through his production company, Santana Productions. Bogart identified strongly with the character of the old man and wanted to play the fisherman in the film project, with Nicholas Ray as the director. Unfortunately, the actor was unsuccessful in securing the film rights, and the film wasn't made until the year following his death, with his close friend Spencer Tracy starring.


October 11, 1962 -
We all got to follow the wacky adventures of the crew of PT-73 when McHale's Navy set sail for the first time on this date on ABC-TV.



The entire Pacific Ocean naval base was built on the back lot of Universal Studios. For many years after the show went off the air, the sets were used as an attraction on the studio tour.


October 11, 1975 -
The long running (some say too long running) comedy variety show started at 11:30 PM, on this date, with George Carlin as its host.  It was called NBC's Saturday Night, because ABC featured a program at the same time titled Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. After ABC canceled the Cosell program in 1976, the NBC program changed its name to Saturday Night Live on March 26, 1977.



The first episode featured two musical guests Billy Preston (Nothing From Nothing & Fancy Lady) and Janis Ian (At Seventeen & In The Winter).


Today in History:
October 11, 1884 -
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, the niece of President Theodore Roosevelt and wife of President Franklin Roosevelt, was born in New York City on this date.



She was the first wife of a president to hold her own news conference at the White House, in 1933 . She was a delegate to the UN General Assembly from 1945 until 1952. During her time at the United Nations she chaired the committee that drafted and approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.


October 11, 1899 -
The Bores of South Africa declared war on Great Britain in the hopes of generating interest, on this date.

(The war should not be confused with the Boar War, which had been canceled on account of tusks.)


October 11, 1910 -
Ex-president Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane on this date. He flew for four minutes with Arch Hoxsey in a plane built by the Wright Brothers at Kinloch Field (Lambert-St. Louis International Airport), St. Louis, Missouri.

He was having such a good time, he became the first US President to be repeatedly clubbed like a baby seal to get him out of the plane.

Bully!


October 11, 1919 -
Britain's Handley Page Transport became the first airline to serve in-flight meals when it offered lunch boxes on its London-to-Paris flight on this date.



The meals, consisting of a sandwich, fruits and chocolate, were sold at 3 shillings each. (British Airways has some of those first meals available for purchase.)


October 11, 1952 -
Referee Francis DeReus halted the college football match between Wesleyan and Dubuque because of the profanity spewing from Dubuque's coach, Maco Mercer. DeReus tossed coach and team from the game, and called the game because of profanity. The final score was Iowa Wesleyan 1, Dubuque 0. History does not record which vulgarities were involved.

Wanna guess?


October 11, 1961 -
Leonard 'Chico' Marx, the oldest of the Marx Brothers, died on this date. Chico was a compulsive womanizer and had a lifelong gambling habit. His addiction cost him millions of dollars by his own account. His brother, Gummo Marx, in an interview years after Chico's death, said, "Chico's favorite people were actors who gambled, producers who gambled, and women who screwed."



For a while in the 1930s and 1940s Chico led a big band. Singer Mel Torme began his professional career singing with the Chico Marx Orchestra.

Chico's lifelong gambling addiction compelled him to continue in show business long after his brothers had retired in comfort from their Hollywood income, and in the early 40s, he found himself playing in the same small, cheap halls he had begun his career in 30 years previously.



It was rumored that when Bugsy Siegal was shot, one of the items found on his person was a check from Chico, payment of a gambling debt from a poker game.


October 11, 1976 -

After the death of Chinese leader Mao Zedong, Mao's widow Jiang Qing and three others, dubbed the "Gang of Four," were arrested and charged with plotting a coup, on this date. Their first album, Entertainment! was released two years later.



After their re-education, eventually, so were they.


October 11, 1978 -
Former Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman) stabbed girlfriend Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb) to death in room 100 of New York's Chelsea Hotel on this date. Because Sid remembered nothing about the crime, theories include robbery and an abortive suicide pact. Vicious died of an ugly heroin overdose shortly before his trial.



Folks, there are no pretty heroin overdoses.


October 11, 2008 -
Luc Costermans, of Belgium, wanted to prove something on this date.  So he borrowed a Lamborghini Gallardo that was outfitted with some special equipment. (I don't have any friends that would loan me their Lamborghini.)

Driving with Guillaume Roman, Costermans drove 192 miles per hour on an airstrip in France, breaking the previous record of 178.5 miles per hour, which had been set three years before. Oh, I forgot to mention that Costermans is blind and apparently Roman is crazy.



And so it goes