It's a really, really, really big (art) show!

Famous artwork is about to hit America’s streets and public places. The project , known as Art Everywhere US, will start popping up on billboards, bus stops, digital display boards and on subway platforms. The kickoff begins today in New York’s Times Square, where digital billboards will display all the artworks.



This summer, 58 images of great American art will be displayed as part of “the largest outdoor art show ever conceived,”; the artwork will be seen from coast-to-coast. The project runs through August. 31.


Today is the feast day of St. Sithney. St. Sithney is the patron saint of mad dogs.

Make of this what you wish.



A Breton folk story, states that God asked Sithney to be the patron saint of girls seeking husbands, but Sithney said he would rather be the patron saint of mad dogs and get some rest. (And you thought there were no Jewish comedians as saints.)


Barack Obama is 53 years old today. Dear Mr. President, even if it was in haste, I'm glad your parents had unprotected sex around nine months prior to your birth date (where ever you were born.).



Hopefully, now that Congress is on summer recess, you can have a break too.  I mean nothing seems to be going on in the world at the moment.


August 4, 1930 -
Michael Cullen was a grocer's grocer. He started working for The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A & P) at 18 and worked there for 17 years. He then went to work for Kroger Stores for 11 years but he had a dream.

Cullen leased a vacant garage at the corner of 171st Street and Jamaica Avenue in Queens, just a few blocks from a busy shopping district. On August 4, 1930, King Kullen Grocery Company opened the doors to the world's first supermarket.



I wonder how they're celebrating Founder's Day at the store?


August 4, 1901 -
Louis Armstrong (medicinal marijuana and laxative enthusiast) always stated that his birthday was on the Fourth of July, a date that has been noted in many biographies.







During the 1980's, Louis Armstrong's baptismal certificate was discovered in the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in New Orleans, showing his actual birth date was August 4th, 1901.


August 4, 1954 -
Douglas Sirk's first Technicolor gift for film goers, Magnificent Obsession, was released on this date.



Forget the silly plot, this film was Rock Hudson's breakthrough film (the first of eight studio pictures he would make with Sirk) and Sirk began to realize his masterful visual language skills


Today in History:
August 4, 1693 -
Oh, great day in the morning (this day should be a great religious and national holiday), Blind Benedictine Dom Perignon invents champagne on this date.



He has been quoted as saying, "Come quickly, brothers, I'm drinking stars!" upon tasting his accidental brew.


August 4, 1792 -



Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of England's greatest Romantic poets was born on this date. He died in a tragic boating accident (along with two others) before the age of 30, but he gave us many masterpieces, including Ozymandias, Music, When Soft Voices Die and Ode To The West Wind.

The fish eaten bodies were washed ashore at Viareggio, where, in the presence of his friend Lord Byron, he was burned on the beach - his heart was given to his wife, Mary Shelley, who carried it with her in a silken shroud everywhere she went for the rest of her life.

All I can say is that I'm glad it was just his heart.


August 4, 1892 -
Someone took an axe and killed Lizzie Borden's millionaire parents; Andrew receives 10 whacks and Abby 14.  Based on strong circumstantial evidence, Sunday school teacher Lizzie was later tried for the murders.



She was acquitted of the murders by an all-male jury.


August 4, 1914 -
The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime -  British foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey



Britain and Belgium declared war after German troops entered Belgium. The United States proclaimed its neutrality (more on all of this later.)


August 4, 1922 -
All 13 million telephones in North America go silent for one minute at sunset during the funeral services of Alexander Graham Bell on this date. Bell was buried in a coffin built by his lab staff in a tomb carved into the solid rock of Beinn Bhreagh Mountain on his estate in Nova Scotia, Canada.

To commemorate his pioneering contributions to telecommunications technology, AT&T and the Bell System suspends service at their switchboards and switching stations across Canada and the United States.


August 4, 1964 -
Vietcong torpedo boats launch an unprovoked attack against the U.S.S. Maddox, while the destroyer is patrolling the Gulf of Tonkin. The only problem is - it may all have been a hoax.



Regardless, the Congress responds by passing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, authorizing President Johnson "to take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression."



And so it goes.