While that might work for him in his milieu, no one in their right mind wants to see me wander about without my drawers.
A PSA from your friends at ACME - Avoid mosquitoes, they're not good!
(But at least, you can't get Legionnaire's Disease from them.)
It's the half way point of summer today.
Hopefully you've made plans, if you haven't had a good summer so far.
August 6, 1911 -
Luck? I don't know anything about luck. I've never banked on it and I'm afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: Hard work - and realizing what is opportunity and what isn't.
Lucille Ball, film and television executive, actress and comedian, was born on this date.
During the 1933 filming of Roman Scandals, young Lucille Ball, portraying a slave girl, needed to have her eyebrows entirely shaved off. They never grew back.
August 6, 1926 -
One of John Barrymore's classic silent movies, Don Juan, co-starring a young Mary Astor, opened in NYC on this date.
Warner Brothers premiered its Vitaphone system in New York with the premiere of this film. (The film was the first feature-length film with synchronized Vitaphone sound effects and musical soundtrack, though it has no spoken dialogue.) The tickets went for the astronomical price of $10 a head.
August 6, 1938 -
... In this corner, at 203 and one-third pounds, the most magnificent marvelous multiple monstrous mad mauling mass of meaty muscles ever to master, modify, mat, make mince-meat, and mangle many menacing monsters from Manitoba to Minneapolis!
An early pairing of this comedy duo, Porky and Daffy, was released on this date. (Sorry about the colorized version - it's the only one I could find this time.)
August 6, 1982 -
Alan Parker's rock-musical interpretation of the classical album, Pink Floyd The Wall, premiered in NYC on this date. (Kids, turn out the lights, send the adults out to eat and spark 'em up; it's the whole movie.)
Bob Geldof is terrified of blood and found the razor blade scene extremely difficult to film. He was only supposed to shave his eyebrows. Feeling himself seized by the role, he improvised the scene and shaved his entire body.
Today in History:
August 6 is noted historically as the official end of the Holy Roman Empire, which collapsed on that date in 1806 as Emperor Francis II abdicated.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
August 6, 1890 –
At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler became the first person to be executed by electric chair on this date.
The first shock of electricity did not kill Kemmler, and a second shock was required. The second jolt lasted until the smell of burning flesh filled the room, about four minutes. As soon as his charred body stopped smoldering, Kemmler was pronounced dead.
August 6, 1926 -
Gertrude Ederle becomes first woman to swim English Channel. Before setting out from Cap Griz-Nez, France, at 7:09 a.m., Ederle coated her body with layers of lard and petroleum jelly to insulate her from the cold waters.
Only five men had been able to swim the English Channel before Ederle. The best time had been 16 hours, 33 minutes by an Italian-born Argentine, Enrique Tiraboschi. Ederle walked up the beach at Dover, England after 14 hours and 39 minutes. The first person to greet her was a British immigration officer who requested a passport from "the bleary-eyed, waterlogged teenager."
That man's name is no longer remembered but truly he is the spiritual grandfather of the TSA.
August 6, 1945 -
The first atomic bomb used in combat was dropped on Hiroshima by the Enola Gay, piloted by Col. Paul Tibbets, on this date.
President Truman ordered the use of the first nuclear bomb, which the military referred to as "Little Boy." Harry had been vice president for only 82 days when President Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945 and didn't even know of the existence of the 9,600 pound bomb until he was told about it upon his assumption of the presidency.
In minutes the massive blast and the firestorm it produced destroyed the majority of the city and killed 66,000 people instantly and a total of as many as 166,000 died over a period of months from the nuclear fallout (a third of Hiroshima's population.)
August 6, 1965 -
One of the crowning achievements of the civil rights movement, The Voting Rights Act, was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson, 50 years ago on this date.
One of it key aims was to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
August 6, 1991 -
On December 25, 1990, Tim Berners-Lee (not Al Gore,) successfully connected an http client with an Internet server, thus inventing the World Wide Web.
Less than a year later, on this day, the first website built was at CERN within the border of France, and was first put online.
Checking the calendar:
There are 141 days until Christmas
Before I let you go - Don't forget to catch Jon Stewart's last appearance on the Daily Show tonight -
We'll miss you, Jon
And so it goes.
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