Sunday, November 15, 2015

Just remember to scrap of the green stuff before serving.

Today is America Recycles Day. We should all celebrate today, although it should be called National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day today.

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, today's a good day to make some room in the frig. 



Which made me think about the video that is floating around the interweb about 100 years of American Dinner.  I hope everybody cleaned there plates.


I guess I need someone to explain to me the concept of  holiday long-form commercials in England



It's a wonderful commercial; I just can't imagine Americans sitting for more than a minute for a commercial.


November 15, 1935 -
... And now, on with the opera. Let joy be unconfined. Let there be dancing in the streets, drinking in the saloons, and necking in the parlor.
The Marx Brother's first film made without Zeppo, A Night at the Opera, premiered on this date.



Kitty Carlisle stated that, out of her decades of movie roles, co-starring with The Marx Brothers in this movie gained her the most recognition.


November 15, 1940 -
The film that introduced Abbott and Costello to movie audiences, One Night in the Tropics, opened on this date.



The film was a flop but Abbott and Costello were so popular that Universal offered the team a two-picture deal with the option to extend the contract. Also, Abbott and Costello would receive ten percent of the films' profits (which made them very wealthy.)


November 15, 1945 -
The beautifully lyrical, Les Enfants du Paradis, opened in the US on this date.



This involved building the largest studio set in the then history of French cinema - the quarter mile of street frontage, reproduced in scrupulous detail, representing the Boulevard du Crime, the theater district of Paris in the 1830s and 40s. This would have been a daunting prospect at the best of times but in Vichy France, when all artisans, transport, materials, costumes and film stock were all in short supply, it was a miraculous achievement.


November 15, 1956 -
Elvis Presley's first movie, Love Me Tender, premiered at New York's Paramount Theater on this date.



Elvis Presley was credited as co-writer of the film's four songs, but in fact had little to do with writing them; it was just for purposes of royalties. Elvis did reveal at a 1968 press conference , when asked about his "lack of songwriting, in general" that he did contribute one line of lyrics to the title song, Love Me Tender.


Today in History:
November 15, 1539
-
The Bishop of Glastonbury, Richard Whiting, was hung, drawn and quartered on this date, at Glastonbury Tor after being convicted of treason (on a trumped up charge) of remaining loyal to Rome.

The Abbot's head was stuck on a spike above his abbey gateway for all to see, and his quarters, boiled in pitch, were displayed at neighboring monasteries.

Here's a fact to impress your friends with:

One interpretation of the children's nursery rhyme Little Jack Horner relates it to Jack Horner, steward to the Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, Richard Whiting. Supposedly, the abbot sent Horner to London to present a pie to Henry VIII with the deeds to 12 manors inside. During the journey, Horner opened the pie and took the deed to Mells (it being the real 'plum' of the twelve manors), which was indeed acquired by the family at that time, although they claim that it was purchased legitimately.


November 15, 1660 -
Asser Levy (one of the first Jewish citizens to come to New Amsterdam) became the first kosher butcher licensed in NYC (New Amsterdam) on this date.

Later that day, a Mrs.Yetta Abromowicz is the first customer to ask how fresh the chicken was.


November 15, 1904 -
A patent was granted to King C. Gillette for a safety 'razor' on this date.

Production on the razors began in 1903 when he sold a total of 51 razors and 168 blades. The following year, 90,884 razors and 123,648 blades were sold, thanks in part to Gillette's low prices, automated manufacturing techniques, and good advertising


Today in 1864 -
Union General William T. Sherman began his March to the Sea and burnt Atlanta on this date.



Meanwhile in another part of Atlanta, Rhett rescues Scarlett, Melanie and her brand new baby from Aunt Pittypat's Peachtree Street home before the conflagration began.



Rhett declared his love for Scarlett but she rebuffed him.



But that's a another story.


November 15, 1887 -
American artist Georgia O'Keeffe was born on this date.



Ms. O'Keeffe is best known for her colorful paintings of desert flowers -



that don't look like vaginas.


November 15, 1939 -
Perhaps because it was the depth of the Great Depression, the perversion of Washington DC, knew no bounds -

President Roosevelt, slowly but deliberately rose from his wheelchair and laid the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., in front a group of horrified dignitaries, on this date


November 15, 1940
-
The Queens–Midtown Tunnel linking Manhattan and Queens opened to traffic on this date.

Some of those first drivers have just made it out to Mattatuck by now.


November 15, 1959 -
In Holcomb, Kansas, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith brutally killed four members of the Herbert Clutter Family on this date.



This crime was memorably recounted by Truman Capote in his famous non-fiction story, In Cold Blood.


November 15, 1970 -
Things that didn't teach you in school: The Soviet moon rover, Lunokhod 1 lands on the Moon on this date. (Yes kids, the video is a simulation.)



Lunokhod was the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another celestial body.



And so it goes.


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