The folks at Sesame Street are at it again

This time, it's a parody of  The Game of Thrones - The Game of Chairs.



And you thought nothing could go wrong with a game of musical chairs.


Today is World Health Day, celebrating the founding of WHO (World Health Organization) in 1948 on this date. This years topic of World Health Day 2015 is highlighting the challenges and opportunities associated with food safety under the slogan "From farm to plate, make food safe."



It is estimated that two million deaths occur every year from contaminated food or drinking water.

Enjoy your lunch kids.


April 7, 1805 -
Beethoven conducted the premiere of his Eroica Symphony No. 3 in E flat major on this date. Beethoven uses the symphony to convey popular notions about heroism and revolution, which were prevalent throughout Europe at the time.



He was full of enthusiasm and respect for the French Revolution's ideals, and especially (at first) Napoleon Bonaparte. Beethoven, like a teenage groupie, scrawled Napoleon's name all over the dedication page of the symphony.



But then Napoleon went on a world tour and started conquering random European countries. When he became a truly evil bastard, finally declared himself Emperor of the French in 1804, Beethoven flew into a rage. He ripped through the paper as he scratched out Napoleon's name with a knife.


April 7, 1915 -
Eleanora Fagan, considered by many to be the greatest jazz vocalist of all time, was born 100 years ago on this day. Though her career was relatively short and often erratic, she left behind a body of work as great as any vocalist before or since.







Eleanora's (or as she was professionally known, Billie Holiday) vocal style — strongly inspired by instrumentalists — pioneered a new way of manipulating wording and tempo, and also popularized a more personal and intimate approach to singing.


April 7, 1927 -
An audience in New York saw an image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover in the first successful long-distance demonstration of television. Hoover’s image and voice were transmitted across telephone lines. Edna Mae Horner, an operator at the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company, assisted the transmission and became the first woman on television

Unfortunately, this was not a demonstration of a time machine and Hoover didn't get a message about the upcoming Great Depression.


April 7, 1933 -
Arguably his most influential film, French filmmaker Jean Vigo's feature, Zero de Conduite (Zero for Conduct) was released on this date.



The film was banned by the French censor until after 1946. The film has been ranked as one of the "100 Movies That Shook the World". 


April 7, 1939 -
That little old Italian wine maker, Francis Ford Coppola, (who is also a magazine publisher and hotelier) was born on this date.



Like Martin Scorsese, Coppola was a sickly youth, a case of polio which allowed him time to indulge in puppet theater and home movies.


April 7, 1970 -
John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy won the Oscar for Best Picture on this date. It remains the only X-rated film to win an Academy Award.



The film was rated "X" (no one under 17 admitted) upon its original release in 1969, but the unrestricted use of that rating by pornographic filmmakers caused the rating to quickly become associated with hardcore sex films.


(I  had to put together two IKEA loft beds yesterday, please forgive me if none of this makes any sense.)
Today in History:
April 7, 1933 -
In March of 1933, President Roosevelt signed the Cullen–Harrison Act allowing the sale of beer once again with the proviso, the beer remain no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight.



On this date, the act became law, and beer production began – thus marking the imminent end of Prohibition. April 7th does NOT signify the end of National Prohibition. National Prohibition ended on December 5, 1933.  New Beer's Eve (which was celebrated last night) occured the day before National Alcohol-Free Weekend began.

Celebrate either as you see fit.


April 7, 1954 -
President Dwight D. Eisenhower coined one of the most famous Cold War phrases when he suggests the fall of French Indochina to the communists could create a "domino" effect in Southeast Asia on this date.



The so-called "domino theory" dominated U.S. thinking about Vietnam for the next decade.

Who know that the President was so afraid of the Pizza boy?


April 7, 1956 -
Capitol Tower, the headquarters of Capitol Records in Hollywood, California, was dedicated on this date.



The building, designed to resemble a stack of records, was the first circular office tower in the U.S.


April 7, 1989 -
Soviet nuclear submarine K-278 Komsomolets sank in the Norwegian sea, with two nuclear reactors and two nuclear torpedoes aboard on this date.



41 crew members died, and the submarine remains one mile below the surface of the ocean, with its nuclear weapons intact.


April 7, 1990 -
A display of Robert Mapplethorpe photographs opened at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cncinnati, the same day the center and its director, Dennis Barrie were indicted on obscenity charges on this date.



Both were later acquitted.


April 7, 1998 -
Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou was arrested by an undercover police officer after pleasuring himself in front of him in a public toilet.



If George only realized how many of his fans would have happily dons uniforms and stood before him in any restroom of his choice.



And so it goes.